The many worlds of chemistry

OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

Tartu

Simposio; Ponencia plenaria Symposium In Memoriam of Prof. Rein Vihalemm; 2018

University of Tartu

The case of different models of a same target was extensively studied in the literature (e.g., the Meissner effect). Nevertheless, from a representationalist position, it can be argued that, although the model was successful in his time, it was left aside when the new model was formulated; this last one is the representative model.Quantum chemistry shows cases in which a single model embodies contradictory elements: the case in which an assumption that contradicts a consequence of the theory on which the model is based (the case of the orbital approximation); the case of an assumption that contradicts a postulate of the theory on which the model is based, since coming from a different, ontologically incompatible theory (the case of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. In this kind of cases, advocating for a representationalist conception of models is more difficult. In other words, the models of quantum chemistry seem to offer a further and stronger challenge to the representationalist view of scientific models.