About ISPC & FOCH
The International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC) is devoted to the international exchange of ideas concerning the philosophical foundations of the chemical sciences and related areas. This exchange fosters discourse between chemists, biochemists, philosophers, historians, sociologists and educators.
Philosophy of chemistry concerns both internal questions arising from the methods, concepts, and ontology unique to chemistry and chemical research, as well as traditional questions in the philosophy of science, addressed from a chemical perspective. Although philosophy of chemistry is a reflecting discipline in the first place, it is also considered to contribute constructively to the image of chemistry in science, education, and society.
ISPC President:
Rom Harré, Georgetown University, USA/ Linacre College, Oxford University, UK
ISPC Executive Committee:
Marina Banchetti-Robino, Florida Atlantic University, USA.
Robin Hendry, University of Durham, UK.
Olimpia Lombardi, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Guillermo Restrepo, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences and Interdisciplinary Center of Bioinformatics, Leipzig, Germany.
Klaus Ruthenberg, Hochschule Coburg, Germany.
Eric Scerri, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Brigitte Van Tiggelen, Chemical Heritage Foundation, USA, and Mémosciences, Belgium.
Foundations of Chemistry (FOCH) is the official journal of the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry. FOCH is an international journal in which conceptual and fundamental issues are discussed which relate to the 'central science' of chemistry. Coverage includes the autonomous role of chemistry between physics and biology and the question of the reduction of chemistry to quantum mechanics.
FOCH publishes peer-reviewed articles on a wide range of topics, including chemical models, language, metaphors, and theoretical terms; chemical evolution and artificial self-replication; the social and ethical aspects of chemistry's professionalism; modelling and instrumentation in chemistry; the nature of explanation in the chemical sciences; theoretical chemistry, molecular structure and chaos; ancient chemistry, medieval chemistry and alchemy; philosophical and historical articles; and more. Foundations of Chemistry offers themed issues, and includes book reviews and discussion notes.
As a tradition, FOCH publishes proceedings of the ISPC meetings and ISPC members can receive the journal at a reduced rate.