Pierre (Maurice Marie) D - Life, Philosophy, History of Science, Other works, Bibliography

Philosopher of science and physicist, born in Paris, France. He studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, held teaching positions at Lille, and Rennes, and became professor of physics at Bordeaux (1895). His early scientific work was in thermodynamics, and many of his ideas were well in advance of their time. He made important contributions to the history of science, in particular reviving an interest in mediaeval science. His chief works are La Théorie physique (1906, Physical Theory) and Sauver les phénomènes (1908, Saving the Phenomena).

Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (10 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French physicist and philosopher of science, best known for his writings on the indeterminacy of experimental criteria and on scientific development in the Middle Ages.

Life

At 11 he entered the College Stanislavs and in 1884 he published his first paper which was on electrochemical cells.

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Philosophy

Duhem's views on the philosophy of science are explicated in La théorie physique: son objet et sa structure. In this work he refuted the inductivist claim that Newton's laws can de deduced from those Kepler.

It should be cleared up, however, that as popular as the Duhem-Quine thesis may be in the philosophy of science, in reality Pierre Duhem and Willard Van Orman Quine stated very different theses.

History of Science

Duhem is well known for his work on the history of science, which resulted in the ten volume Le système du monde: histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic. His work in this field was originally prompted by his research into the origins of statics, where he encountered the works of medieval mathematicians and philosophers such as Nicole Oresme and Roger Bacon, whose sophistication surprised him.

Other works

Duhem is also known for his work in thermodynamics, being in part responsible for the development of what is known as the Gibbs-Duhem relation.

Bibliography

Les théories de la chaleur (1895) Le mixte et la combinaison chimique. Essai sur l'évolution d'une idée (1902) L'évolution de la mécanique (1902) Les origines de la statique (1903) La théorie physique son objet et sa structure (1906) Études sur Léonard de Vinci. De Nobele, 1906-13; Albert de Saxe et Léonard de Vinci. Léonard de Vinci et Villalpand. Léonard de Vinci et Bernardino Baldi. Thémon le fils du juif et Léonard de Vinci. Léonard de Vinci, Cardan et Bernard Palissy. La scientia de ponderibus et Léonard de Vinci. Albert de Saxe. Léonard de Vinci et les deux infinis. Léonard de Vinci et la pluralité des mondes. Nicolas de Cues et Léonard de Vinci. Léonard de Vinci et les origines de la géologie. Les précurseurs parisiens de Galilée: XIII. Buridan (de Béthune) et Léonard de Vinci. Le tradition de Buridan et la science italienne au XVIe siecle. Dominique Soto et la scolastique parisienne. Essai sur la Notion de Théorie physique de Platon à Galilée (1908) Traité de l'énergétique (1911) Le Système du Monde. Histoire des Doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic, 10 vols., (1913—1959)