Chemical semantics: the evolution of meaning of the atom throughout the evolution of chemical science

Abstract

Semantics is the study of meaning. And what does the meaning mean? We will consider the idea that a sign, whether sound or graphic, awakens in people as a good answer. Meaning, like language, is not a static, immutable thing, on the contrary it is constantly evolving. If this does not happen, the meaning ceases to exist and, consequently, the sign as well. A historical example in chemistry is phlogiston, which once proved incapable of opening doors to the future was shelved. The same happened with caloric, murium and others that had meanings not supported by new scientific knowledge. Meaning can change, take new forms, expand the field of meaning to adapt to contemporary knowledge. The atom gives us a magnificent example of meaning in movement capable of adapting to the new achievements of science. The search for understanding matter is undoubtedly a continuous process and one of the most enigmatic in science, an example of this is the evolutionary process suffered by models aiming to describe the atom. There were many philosophers who thought about the constitution of matter, but Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius were the most visible. Thus, the study of the evolution of the meaning of the atom is the central aspect that will be addressed in this article.