Thoughts on Wilhelm Ostwald's book Conversations on Chemistry?https://archive.org/details/conversationsonc01ostwrich
This book interests me for several reasons.I found the book through this German reader, which I like a lot. The first part of the reader is the original German text with notes.https://archive.org/details/scientificgerman0000georThe teaching method caught my attention. I have seen similar methods for language teaching, but never for other subjects, such as here for chemistry. It's something similar to the "nature method" found in books like Hans Ørberg's Familia Romana. I looked into it and found that this was not at all how chemistry was taught in schools at the time, but rather Conversations on Chemistry was, in addition to a book that teaches you chemistry, a deliberate critique of how teaching was done, and intended to show how it ought to be done.I looked into it further and found that Ostwald was critical of the school system at the time and wrote about it in many of his publications, for example in a book titled "Grosse Männer" (Great Men) which has not been translated into English partly due to its controversial content. In it he apparently talks about school deliberately suppressing creativity and genius.https://archive.org/details/grosse-mannerFurthermore there is an interesting philosophical discussion on page 7 of Conversations on Chemistry, see picrel.Conversations on Chemistry was published in two parts, the second of which is here:https://archive.org/details/conversationson05ostwgoog
>>17036493Oh man, I'd love to learn chemistry in this 'philosophical' way. I can't stand the way typical chemistry teaching materials are written, and I've never taken to the subject.
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