ABSTRACT
Our history says that the periodic table was written in Russian, the quantum mechanics was written in German, and our understandings were in English [1]. The present status shows that although the periodic table has the powerful chemical organizing power, it does not follow from the quantum mechanics. We are habituated in thinking and modeling in terms of many things that are mental constructs and do not occur in the real world, and hence do not follow from quantum mechanics. Or in other words, their measurement and evaluation in terms of quantum mechanics are ruled out because they are not the things of the real world, and hence have no quantum mechanical operators. They occur in mind and in the domain of hypothesis such as the unicorn of mythical saga [2]. They exist but cannot be seen. We can mention many such mental constructs in the domain of hypothesis. We mention here only two of such mythical objects. These are the “electronegativity” and the “hardness.” If the meaning and purport and operational significance of these two legends are withdrawn from the pedagogy of chemistry, there will be a total chaos in the whole of the chemical and physical world. These two hypothetical and mental constructs are so important descriptors deep rooted in the thinking of chemistry and physics that scientists had to search method of their measurement through modeling. In fact, these are measured after reification [3], that is, suggesting and designing certain model and then evaluation was conceived. We may refer to the opinion of Parr et al. [4] who seem to have connected the construct of the hardness and the electronegativity with the noumenon of Kantian philosophy. The noumenon is an object knowable by the mind or intellect, but not by the senses. Thus, the hardness and/or electronegativity are objects of purely intellectual discourses. Scientists have designed scales of measurement of the electronegativity and hardness. Success lies in the fact that the results of semi empirically evaluated data are useful in correlation with chemical and physical behavior of atoms, molecules, and crystalline solids.
