You can tell from the title that this book tells you about organic chemistry. But it tells you
more than that: it tells you how we know about organic chemistry. It tells you facts, but it also
teaches you how to find facts out. It tells you about reactions, and teaches you how to predict
which reactions will work; it tells you about molecules, and it teaches you how to work out
ways of making them.
We said ‘it tells’ in that last paragraph. Maybe we should have said ‘we tell’ because we want
to speak to you through our words so that you can see how we think about organic chemistry
and to encourage you to develop your own ideas. We expect you to notice that three people
have written this book, and that they don’t all think or write in the same way. That is as it
should be. Organic chemistry is too big and important a subject to be restricted by dogmatic
rules. Different chemists think in different ways about many aspects of organic chemistry
and in many cases it is not yet, and may never be, possible to be sure who is right. In many
cases it doesn’t matter anyway.
We may refer to the history of chemistry from time to time but we are usually going to tell
you about organic chemistry as it is now. We will develop the ideas slowly, from simple and
fundamental ones using small molecules to complex ideas and large molecules. We promise
one thing. We are not going to pull the wool over your eyes by making things artificially sim-
ple and avoiding the awkward questions. We aim to be honest and share both our delight in
good complete explanations and our puzzlement at inadequate ones.
more than that: it tells you how we know about organic chemistry. It tells you facts, but it also
teaches you how to find facts out. It tells you about reactions, and teaches you how to predict
which reactions will work; it tells you about molecules, and it teaches you how to work out
ways of making them.
We said ‘it tells’ in that last paragraph. Maybe we should have said ‘we tell’ because we want
to speak to you through our words so that you can see how we think about organic chemistry
and to encourage you to develop your own ideas. We expect you to notice that three people
have written this book, and that they don’t all think or write in the same way. That is as it
should be. Organic chemistry is too big and important a subject to be restricted by dogmatic
rules. Different chemists think in different ways about many aspects of organic chemistry
and in many cases it is not yet, and may never be, possible to be sure who is right. In many
cases it doesn’t matter anyway.
We may refer to the history of chemistry from time to time but we are usually going to tell
you about organic chemistry as it is now. We will develop the ideas slowly, from simple and
fundamental ones using small molecules to complex ideas and large molecules. We promise
one thing. We are not going to pull the wool over your eyes by making things artificially sim-
ple and avoiding the awkward questions. We aim to be honest and share both our delight in
good complete explanations and our puzzlement at inadequate ones.
