The paper deals with the philosophy of science and technology from a new perspective. The analysis connects closely to the novel approach to scientific research called practical realism of the late Estonian philosopher of science and chemistry Rein Vihalemm. From his perspective, science is not only theoretical but even more clearly a practical activity. This kind of practice-based approach puts chemistry rather than physics into the position of the most typical science as chemistry has a dual character resting on both constructive-hypothetico-deductive (ϕ-science) and classifying-historico-descriptive (non-ϕ-science) types of cognition. Chemists deal with finding out the laws of nature just like the physicists do. However, in addition to this chemistry deals with substances or stuff that is rather an activity typical to natural history. The analysis of the dual character of chemistry brings forward the need to analyse philosophically also the reasons why physics has held the position of the model science so far. The problem unfolds in the context of practical realism. However, some earlier observations concerning the dual character of chemistry influenced us as well, i.e. by Friedrich Paneth, Michael Polanyi and Edward Caldin. More recently, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Jonathan Simon have given their own explanation of why and how chemistry has a dual character. From their perspective, chemistry is a perfect technical science as it aims at applications, literally at producing something new. Bensaude-Vincent and Simon call their approach operational realism. The latter, however, does not differ from practical realism.

中文翻译：

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化学作为基础科学

论文从新的角度论述了科学技术哲学。该分析与爱沙尼亚已故科学和化学哲学家 Rein Vihalemm 的称为实用现实主义的新型科学研究方法密切相关。在他看来，科学不仅是理论性的，而且更明显是一种实践活动。这种基于实践的方法将化学而不是物理学置于最典型的科学位置，因为化学具有双重特征，既建立在建构-假设-演绎（ϕ-science）又以分类-历史-描述（非-ϕ-科学）类型的认知。化学家像物理学家一样处理寻找自然规律的工作。然而，除此之外，化学处理的物质或东西是自然历史的典型活动。对化学双重性质的分析提出了哲学分析的必要性，也提出了迄今为止物理学一直占据模型科学地位的原因。这个问题是在实践现实主义的背景下展开的。然而，一些早期关于化学双重性质的观察也影响了我们，即弗里德里希·帕内特、迈克尔·波兰尼和爱德华·卡尔丁。最近，Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent 和 Jonathan Simon 就化学为何以及如何具有双重特征给出了自己的解释。从他们的角度来看，化学是一门完美的技术科学，因为它的目标是应用，实际上是生产新的东西。Bensaude-Vincent 和 Simon 将他们的方法称为操作现实主义。然而，后者与实际现实主义没有区别。