Ideal Reaction Types and the Reactions of Real Alloys

Abstract

Scientists must often solve analytically or computationally intractable problems. Philosophers of science have problematized the nature and role of laws, theories and evidence by examining how scientists use abstractions (Cartwright 1990), idealizations (Laymon 1985, Brezinski et. al. 1990), approximations (Cartwright 1983; Laymon 1989; Ramsey 1990, 1992), and visual images (Wimsatt 1991, Ruse 1991) in such situations. Here, I problematize the nature and role of concepts by examining ideal types as a response to intractability. I focus on the work of Carl Wagner, a former director of the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry in Goettingen. Wagner used ideal types in his research on the oxidation of metal alloys during the middle third of this century. I argue that: natural scientists do use ideal typical concepts; these concepts are distinct from ‘standard’ concepts; and ideal typical concepts provide one means of connecting a tractable theoretical model with the experimental evidence.