Wikipedia tells us that dissolving occurs when differences in electrical charge across molecules of solvent (e.g., a molecule of water is famously negative around the oxygen and positive around the hydrogens) interact with differences in electrical charge across molecules of solute such that the molecules of solute get stripped out of the structure they were in and surrounded by molecules of solvent, held in place by what appears to be essentially an ionic bond between the solute and the solvent.

I'm not sure why that's not considered "chemistry".