Abstract
Panenmentalist possibilities are individual pure possibilities existing independently of any mind, actual reality, and possible-world conception. These possibilities are a priori accessible to our intellect and imagination. In this paper, I attempt to shed some panenmentalist light on the discovery of chemical branched chain reactions and its implications on biology and cancer research. I also examine the case of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction which, at first, was believed to be impossible. Finally, I proceed to examine through a panenmentalist lens Szilard’s discovery of the possibility of physical chain reactions and Mullis’s discovery of a polymerase chain reaction. All these major actual discoveries clearly depend on the discovery of the relevant panenmentalist possibilities and the ways in which they relate to one another.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 201-214 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Foundations of Chemistry |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Oct 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Keywords
- Branched chain reactions
- Individual pure possibilities
- Nuclear chain reactions
- Panenmentalism
- Polymerase chain reaction
- The Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction
- “Impossible” reactions
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- History