Why study history of chemistry?

Abstract

When asking for reasons why chemistry teachers should study history of chemistry, one is likely to encounter the claims that a knowledge of the great chemists of the past will allow them to humanize their subject through the use of biographical anecdotes, or will allow them to illustrate the nature of the scientific method through a recounting of a significant event or past revolution in chemical thought, such as Lavoisier’s over-throw of the phlogiston theory of combus-tion. However, the use of biography is often subverted by the ever present demands and temptations of both patriotism and political correctness into the creation of a highly dis-torted view of who did or did not actually make truly significant contributions to the development of modern chemistry, and, alas, the history of chemistry – as modern historians of science have repeatedly remin-ded us – contains far more examples of che-mists who ignored, rather than applied, the niceties of the so-called scientific method.