Pierre Duhem

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Pierre Duhem

Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (10 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
physicist

Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
, mathematician

Mathematics

Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
, best known for his writings on the indeterminacy of experimental criteria and on scientific development in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. Duhem also made major contributions to the science of his day, particularly in the fields of hydrodynamics, elasticity

Elasticity

Elasticity may refer to:*Elasticity , continuum mechanics of bodies which deform reversibly under stressVarious uses are derived from this physical sense of the term, especially in economics:...
, and thermodynamics

Thermodynamics

In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
.

m's views on the philosophy of science are explicated in La théorie physique: son objet et sa structure.

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Encyclopedia

Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (10 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French

France

Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
, mathematician

Mathematics

Philosophy of science

Middle Ages

Elasticity

Thermodynamics

Philosophy

Duhem's views on the philosophy of science are explicated in La théorie physique: son objet et sa structure. In this work, he opposed Newton's statement that the Principia
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

The Philosophi? Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a three-volume work by Isaac Newton published on 5 July 1687. It contains the statement of Newton's laws of motion forming the foundation of classical mechanics, as well as his Newton's law of universal gravitation and a derivation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion for the motion of...
's law of universal mutual gravitation was deduced

Deduction

Deduction can refer to one of the following usages: lower price on something* Deductive reasoning, inference in which the conclusion is of no greater generality than the premises...
from 'phenomena', including Kepler

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a Germans mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century Scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous Kepler's laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astrononomy....
's second and third laws. Newton's claims in this regard had already been attacked by critical proof-analyses of the German logician Leibniz and then most famously by Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German Philosophy from the Kingdom of Prussia city of K?nigsberg . He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Age of Enlightenment....
, following Hume

David Hume

David Hume was a Scotland philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment....
's logical critique of induction

Induction

Most common meanings * Inductive reasoning, used in science and the scientific method* Mathematical induction, a method of proof in the field of mathematics...
. But the novelty of Duhem's work was his proposal that Newton's theory of universal mutual gravity flatly contradicted Kepler's Laws of planetary motion because the interplanetary mutual gravitational perturbation

Perturbation

Perturbation or perturb may refer to any of numerous concepts in several fields:* Perturbation theory, mathematical methods that give approximate solutions to problems that cannot be solved exactly...
s caused deviations from Keplerian orbit

ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
s. Since no proposition

Proposition

This article is about the term proposition in logic and philosophy; for other uses see PropositionIn logic and philosophy, proposition refers to either the "content" or Meaning of a meaningful declarative sentence or the pattern of symbols, marks, or sounds that make up a meaningful declarative sentence....
can be validly

Validity

The term Validity in logic applies to Argument or statements....
logically deduced from any it contradicts, according to Duhem, Newton must not have logically deduced his law of gravitation directly from Kepler's Laws.

Duhem's name is given to the Quine-Duhem thesis

Confirmation holism

Confirmation holism, also called epistemological holism is the claim that a single scientific theory cannot be tested in isolation; a test of one theory always depends on other theories and hypotheses....
, which holds that for any given set of observations there are an innumerably large number of explanations. Thus empirical evidence cannot force the revision of a theory. As such, the Quine-Duhem thesis is offered as an alternative to the use of Popper's

Karl Popper

Knight Bachelor Karl Raimund Popper Order of the Companions of Honour, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics....
criterion of falsification

Falsification

Falsification may mean:*The act of disproving a proposition, hypothesis, or theory. *Forgery, the act of producing something that lacks authenticity with the intent to commit fraud or deception...
as a reliable means of distinguishing science from pseudoscience.

As popular as the Duhem-Quine thesis may be in the philosophy of science

Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
, in reality Pierre Duhem and Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine , was an American analytic philosophy and logician. From 1930 until his death 70 years later, Quine was affiliated in some way with Harvard University, first as a student, then as a professor of philosophy and a teacher of mathematics, and finally as an emeritus elder statesman who published or revised seven books in...
stated very different theses. Pierre Duhem believed that experimental theory in physics

Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
is fundamentally different from fields like physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
and certain branches of chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
. Also Duhem's conception of theoretical group has its limits, since not all concepts are connected to each other logically. He did not include at all a priori disciplines such as logic

Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
and mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
within these theoretical groups in physics which can be tested experimentally. Quine, on the other hand, conceived this theoretical group as a unit of a whole human knowledge. To Quine, even mathematics and logic must be revised in light of recalcitrant experience, a thesis that Duhem never held.

History of Science

Duhem is well known for his work on the history of science

History of science

Science is a body of empirical knowledge, theory, and Procedural knowledge knowledge about the Nature, produced by a global community of researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, experimentation and scientific explanation of real world phenomenon....
, which resulted in the ten volume Le système du monde: histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic (The System of World: A History Cosmological Doctrines from Plato to Copernicus). Unlike many former historians (e.g. Voltaire

Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
and Condorcet), who denigrated the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, he endeavored to show that the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
had helped foster Western science in one of its most fruitful periods. His work in this field was originally prompted by his research into the origins of statics

Statics

Statics is the branch of mechanics concerned with the analysis of loads on physical systems in static equilibrium, that is, in a state where the relative positions of subsystems do not vary over time, or where components and structures are at a constant velocity....
, where he encountered the works of medieval mathematicians and philosophers such as John Buridan, Nicole Oresme and Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon

For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon .Roger Bacon, Order of Friars Minor , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an England philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on empiricism....
, whose sophistication surprised him. He consequently came to regard them as the founders of modern science, having in his view anticipated many of the discoveries of Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was a Grand Duchy of Tuscany physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution....
and later thinkers. Duhem concluded that "the mechanics and physics of which modern times are justifiably proud to proceed, by an uninterrupted series of scarcely perceptible improvements, from doctrines professed in the heart of the medieval schools."

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. Paris, F. De Nobele, 1906-13; 1955. 3 v. 1. sér. I. Albert de Saxe et Léonard de Vinci. II. Léonard de Vinci et Villalpand. III. Léonard de Vinci et Bernardino Baldi. IV. Bernardino Baldi, Roberval dt Descartes. V. Thémon le fils du juif et Léonard de Vinci. VI. Léonard de Vinci, Cardan et Bernard Palissy. VII. La scientia de ponderibus et Léonard de Vinci. VIII. Albert de Saxe. 2. sér. IX. Léonard de Vinci et les deux infinis. X. Léonard de Vinci et la pluralité des mondes. XI. Nicolas de Cues et Léonard de Vinci. XII. Léonard de Vinci et les origines de la géologie. 3. sér. Les précurseurs parisiens de Galilée: XIII. Jean I. Buridan (de Béthune) et Léonard de Vinci. XIV. Le tradition de Buridan et la science italienne au XVIe siecle. XV. Dominique Soto et la scolastique parisienne.
Sozein ta phainomena. 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)

External links

- article about the censorship of Duhem's ideas.
Link to Duhem's version of his history of physics published in The Catholic Encyclopedia in 1911.