Abstract
When philosophers investigate molecular concepts to determine whether particular accounts of molecules are satisfactory, they face a methodological challenge: they must make assumptions regarding the role(s) such concepts are intended to play. I suggest recognizing a distinction between explanatory and ontological concepts. While scientific theories intimately intertwine the explanatory and the ontological, they should not be equated. While all panelists in this symposium are discussing molecular concepts, I will argue we’re not all talking about the same thing. Recognizing this may dispel some apparent tensions that have seemed inherent in attempts to locate, or recreate, chemists’ molecules in quantum theory.
