Pierre Duhem and Scientific Truth: Contextual, Partial and Real
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The Philosophy of Physics
The Philosophy of Physics ROBERTO TORRETTI University of Chile PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014, Madrid, Spain © Roberto Torretti 1999 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 Printed in the United States of America Typeface Sabon 10.25/13 pt. System QuarkXPress [BTS] A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. 0 521 56259 7 hardback 0 521 56571 5 paperback Contents Preface xiii 1 The Transformation of Natural Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century 1 1.1 Mathematics and Experiment 2 1.2 Aristotelian Principles 8 1.3 Modern Matter 13 1.4 Galileo on Motion 20 1.5 Modeling and Measuring 30 1.5.1 Huygens and the Laws of Collision 30 1.5.2 Leibniz and the Conservation of “Force” 33 1.5.3 Rømer and the Speed of Light 36 2 Newton 41 2.1 Mass and Force 42 2.2 Space and Time 50 2.3 Universal Gravitation 57 2.4 Rules of Philosophy 69 2.5 Newtonian Science 75 2.5.1 The Cause of Gravity 75 2.5.2 Central Forces 80 2.5.3 Analytical -
Moral Values in Duhem's Philosophy of Science
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences 2011 The cS ientist as Impartial Judge: Moral Values in Duhem’s Philosophy of Science David J. Stump University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.usfca.edu/phil Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Stump, David J., "The cS ientist as Impartial Judge: Moral Values in Duhem’s Philosophy of Science" (2011). Philosophy. Paper 13. http://repository.usfca.edu/phil/13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Scientist as Impartial Judge: Moral Values in Duhem’s Philosophy of Science (Part of a book symposium New Perspectives on Pierre Duhem’s Aim and Structure of Scientific Theory in Metascience (2011) 20(1): 1-25) David J. Stump Department of Philosophy University of San Francisco 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117 [email protected] Rereading Duhem’s classic work in the philosophy of science is a true pleasure that I highly recommend. There is of course more in Duhem’s work than can possibly be covered in a short review, so I will focus on his famous epistemological claims and the solution that Duhem proposes to them. -
Aquinas on Attributes
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by MedievaleCommons@Cornell Philosophy and Theology 11 (2003), 1–41. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright C 2004 Cambridge University Press 1057-0608 DOI: 10.1017/S105706080300001X Aquinas on Attributes BRIAN LEFTOW Oriel College, Oxford Aquinas’ theory of attributes is one of the most obscure, controversial parts of his thought. There is no agreement even on so basic a matter as where he falls in the standard scheme of classifying such theories: to Copleston, he is a resemblance-nominalist1; to Armstrong, a “concept nominalist”2; to Edwards and Spade, “almost as strong a realist as Duns Scotus”3; to Gracia, Pannier, and Sullivan, neither realist nor nominalist4; to Hamlyn, the Middle Ages’ “prime exponent of realism,” although his theory adds elements of nominalism and “conceptualism”5; to Wolterstorff, just inconsistent.6 I now set out Aquinas’ view and try to answer the vexed question of how to classify it. Part of the confusion here is terminological. As emerges below, Thomas believed in “tropes” of “lowest” (infima) species of accidents and (I argue) substances.7 Many now class trope theories as a form of nominalism,8 while 1. F. C. Copleston, Aquinas (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1955), P. 94. 2. D. M. Armstrong, Nominalism and Realism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 25, 83, 87. Armstrong is tentative about this. 3. Sandra Edwards, “The Realism of Aquinas,” The New Scholasticism 59 (1985): 79; Paul Vincent Spade, “Degrees of Being, Degrees of Goodness,” in Aquinas’ Moral Theory, ed. -
Dossier Pierre Duhem Pierre Duhem's Philosophy and History of Science
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science , 2 (201 7) 03 -06 ISSN 2526 -2270 www.historiographyofscience.org © The Author s 201 7 — This is an open access article Dossier Pierre Duhem Pierre Duhem’s Philos ophy and History of Science Introduction Fábio Rodrigo Leite 1 Jean-François Stoffel 2 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24117/2526-2270.2017.i2.02 _____________________________________________________________________________ We are pleased to present in this issue a tribute to the thought of Pierre Duhem, on the occasion of the centenary of his death that occurred in 2016. Among articles and book reviews, the dossier contains 14 contributions of scholars from different places across the world, from Europe (Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Sweden) to the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States). And this is something that attests to the increasing scope of influence exerted by the French physicist, philosopher and 3 historian. It is quite true that since his passing, Duhem has been remembered in the writings of many of those who knew him directly. However, with very few exceptions (Manville et al. 1927), the comments devoted to him exhibited clear biographical and hagiographic characteristics of a generalist nature (see Jordan 1917; Picard 1921; Mentré 1922a; 1922b; Humbert 1932; Pierre-Duhem 1936; Ocagne et al. 1937). From the 1950s onwards, when the studies on his philosophical work resumed, the thought of the Professor from Bordeaux acquired an irrevocable importance, so that references to La théorie physique: Son objet et sa structure became a common place in the literature of the area. As we know, this recovery was a consequence of the prominence attributed, firstly, to the notorious Duhem-Quine thesis in the English- speaking world, and secondly to the sparse and biased comments made by Popper that generated an avalanche of revaluations of the Popperian “instrumentalist interpretation”. -
From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science: the Entrenchment of Newton's Ideal of Empirical Success
From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science: The Entrenchment of Newton's Ideal of Empirical Success Pierre J. Boulos Graduate Pro gram in Philosophy Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Graduate Studies The Universly of Western Ontario London, Ontario April 1999 O Pierre J- Boulos 1999 National Library Bibliotheque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your Me Voue reference Our file Notre rddrence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde me licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive pennettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/£ih, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts &om it Ni la these ni des extraits substantieis may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent Stre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT William Harper has recently proposed that Newton's ideal of empirical success as exempli£ied in his deductions fiom phenomena informs the transition fiom natural philosophy to natural science. This dissertation examines a number of methodological themes arising fiom the Principia and that purport to exemplifjr Newton's ideal of empirical success. -
Avicenna's Theory of Minima Naturalia Jon Mcginnis University of Missouri-St
University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Philosophy Faculty Works Philosophy 1-2015 A Small Discovery: Avicenna's Theory of Minima Naturalia Jon McGinnis University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/philosophy-faculty Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation McGinnis, J. "A Small Discovery: Avicenna’s Theory of Minima Naturalia." Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 53 no. 1, 2015, pp. 1-24. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/hph.2015.0002 http://irl.umsl.edu/philosophy-faculty/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Small Discovery: Avicenna’s Theory of Minima Naturalia Jon McGinnis Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 53, Number 1, January 2015, pp. 1-24 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2015.0002 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/566924 Access provided by Missouri @ St Louis, Univ of (17 Feb 2017 19:06 GMT) A Small Discovery: Avicenna’s Theory of Minima Naturalia JON MCGINNIS* ABSTRACT There has been a long-held misconception among historians of philosophy and science that apart from brief comments in Aristotle and Averroes, the theory of minima naturalia had to await Latin Schoolmen for its full articulation. Recently scholars have shown that far from sporadic comments on minima naturalia, Averroes in fact had a fully developed and well-integrated theory of them. -
1. Armstrong and Aristotle There Are Two Main Reasons for Not
RECENSIONI&REPORTS report ANNABELLA D’ATRI DAVID MALET ARMSTRONG’S NEO‐ARISTOTELIANISM 1. Armstrong and Aristotle 2. Lowe on Aristotelian substance 3. Armstrong and Lowe on the laws of nature 4. Conclusion ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to establish criteria for designating the Systematic Metaphysics of Australian philosopher David Malet Armstrong as neo‐ Aristotelian and to distinguish this form of weak neo‐ Aristotelianism from other forms, specifically from John Lowe’s strong neo‐Aristotelianism. In order to compare the two forms, I will focus on the Aristotelian category of substance, and on the dissimilar attitudes of Armstrong and Lowe with regard to this category. Finally, I will test the impact of the two different metaphysics on the ontological explanation of laws of nature. 1. Armstrong and Aristotle There are two main reasons for not considering Armstrong’s Systematic Metaphysics as Aristotelian: a) the first is a “philological” reason: we don’t have evidence of Armstrong reading and analyzing Aristotle’s main works. On the contrary, we have evidence of Armstrong’s acknowledgments to Peter Anstey1 for drawing his attention to the reference of Aristotle’s theory of truthmaker in Categories and to Jim Franklin2 for a passage in Aristotle’s Metaphysics on the theory of the “one”; b) the second reason is “historiographic”: Armstrong isn’t listed among the authors labeled as contemporary Aristotelian metaphysicians3. Nonetheless, there are also reasons for speaking of Armstrong’s Aristotelianism if, according to 1 D. M. Armstrong, A World of State of Affairs, Cambridge University Press, New York 1978, p. 13. 2 Ibid., p. -
A Critical Evaluation of the Epistemology of William Pepperell Montague
Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1957 A Critical Evaluation of the Epistemology of William Pepperell Montague John Joseph Monahan Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Monahan, John Joseph, "A Critical Evaluation of the Epistemology of William Pepperell Montague " (1957). Master's Theses. 1426. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/1426 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1957 John Joseph Monahan I"'" A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE EFISTEiv:OLO<1Y OF WILLIAr·~ FEPfF.RELL tJ!ONTAGUE by John Joseph Monahan A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of tre Graduate School , • of Loyola University in Partial Fulfillment of· • the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Janu&.I'1 1957 , , LIFE The Reverend Jol"n J oae ,h r':!)Mran, C. f!. V. was born in Oh .:teago, 1111 [.'018 f r,~arch 2. 1926. He attended Qulgley .Preparatory Se:n.1nary, Oh,1cago t Illino1s, a.nd was gradua.ted from St. Ambrose College, Daven. port, Iowa, August, 1948, with th~ degree of Bacbelor ot Art a • In 1952 he was ordained til prl•• t from St. Thoma. Seminary, Denver, Oolo%'ado tv1 tt; the degree of Haste%' ot Art •• from. -
Was Pierre Duhem an Esprit De Finesse ?
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science , 2 (201 7) 93 -107 ISSN 2526 -2270 www.historiographyofscience.org © The Author 201 7 — This is an open access article Dossier Pierre Duhem Was Pierre Duhem an Esprit de finesse ? Víctor Manuel Hernández Márquez 1 Abstract: Although Pierre Duhem is well known for his conventionalist outlook and, in particular, for his critique of crucial experiments outlined in his thesis on the empirical indeterminacy of theory, he also contributed to the scholarship on the psychological profiles of scientists by revising Pascal’s famous distinction between the subtle mind and the geometric mind ( esprits fins and esprits géométriques ). For Duhem, the ideal scientist is the one who combines the defining qualities of both types of intellect. As a physicist, Duhem made important theoretical contributions to the field of thermodynamics as well as to the then-nascent physical chemistry. Due to his rejection of atomism and his unrelenting critique of Maxwell’s electrodynamics, however, in his later years, Duhem’s work was surpassed and abandoned by the dominant tendencies of physics of the time. In this essay, I will discuss whether Duhem himself can be understood through the lens of his own account of the scientist’s psychological profile. More specifically, I examine whether the subtle 93 mind – to which he seems to assign greater cognitive value – in fact plays a key role in Duhem’s critique of the English School ( école anglaise ), or if his preference for the axiomatic structure of theoretical physics shows a greater affinity with the geometric mind. Keywords: Pierre Duhem; subtle and geometric minds; abstract and axiomatic theories; physical theory Received: 30 March 2017. -
Continental Philosophy of Science: Mach, Duhem, and Bachelard Babette Babich Fordham University, [email protected]
Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Philosophy Collections 2003 Continental Philosophy of Science: Mach, Duhem, and Bachelard Babette Babich Fordham University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/phil_babich Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, and the Philosophy of Science Commons Recommended Citation Babich, Babette, "Continental Philosophy of Science: Mach, Duhem, and Bachelard" (2003). Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections. 5. https://fordham.bepress.com/phil_babich/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHAPTER 6 Philosophies of science Mach, Duhem, Bachelard Babette E.Babich THE TRADITION OF CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE If the philosophy of science is not typically represented as a ‘continental’ discipline it is nevertheless historically rooted in the tradition of continental thought. The different approaches to the philosophy of science apparent in the writings of Ernst Mach, Pierre Duhem and Gaston Bachelard suggest the range of these roots. But for a discussion of the tradition of continental philosophy of science—as the term ‘continental’ characterizes a contemporary style of philosophic thinking—it is important to emphasize that while Mach, Duhem and Bachelard may be said to be historically continental, a properly continental-style philosophy of science should not be ascribed to any one of them. Contemporary philosophy of science is pursued in what is largely an analytic or Anglo- American-style philosophic tradition. -
Aristotelian Predicables, Universality and Realism the Logic of Comparison in Topics As Denying the View That Aristotle Was a Realist*
ARISTOTELIAN PREDICABLES, UNIVERSALITY AND REALISM THE LOGIC OF COMPARISON IN TOPICS AS DENYING THE VIEW THAT ARISTOTLE WAS A REALIST* Giampaolo Abbate (Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa) 1. The question The paradigmatic passage on how Aristotle introduces the dispute about universals is undoubtedly the seventh aporia of the third book of Metaphysics:1 Besides this, even if the genera are in the highest degree principles, should one regard the first of the genera as principles, or those which are predicated directly of the individuals? This also admits of dispute. For if the universal is always more of a principle, evidently the uppermost of the genera are the principles; for these are predicated of all things. There will, then, be as many principles of things as there are primary genera, so that both being and unity will be principles and substances; for these are most of all predicated of all things. But it is not possible that either unity or being should be a genus of things; for the differentiae of any genus must each of them both have being and be one, but it is not possible for the genus to be predicated of the differentiae taken apart from the species (any more than for the species of the genus to be predicated of the proper differentiae of the genus); so that if unity or being is a genus, no differentia will either be one or have being. But if unity and being are not genera, neither will they be principles, if the genera are the principles. Again, the intermediate classes, whose concepts include the differentiae, will on 1 III, 3, 998b 14 – 999a 23. -
Hyman, Arthur/ Averroes' 'De Substantia Orbis': Critical Edition Of
MEDIEVAL ACADEMY BOOKS, NO. 96 CORPUS PHILOSOPHORUM MEDII AEVI AVERROIS HEBRAICUS CORPUS PHILOSOPHORUM MEDII AEVI ACADEMIARUM CONSOCIATARUM AUSPICIIS ET CONSILIO EDITUM OPERA AVERROIS Ediderunt HENRICUS AUSTRYN WOLFSON V't SHLOMO PINES THE MEDIEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA AND THE ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES AVERROES' DE SUBSTANTIA ORBIS Critical Edition of the Hebrew Text with English Translation and Commentary by ARTHUR HYMAN Cambridge, Massachusetts and Jerusalem 1986 ISBN 965-208-071-3 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 85-61823 Copyright ©1986 by the Medieval Academy of America Printed in Israel In 1931, the Medieval Academy of America undertook the publication of Averroes' Commentaries on Aristotle in accordance with H.A. Wolfson's "Plan for the publication of a Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem"', published in Speculum, VI (1931), pp. 412-427. In 1977, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities undertook to publish the Hebrew translations of the works of Averroes. The present volume is a joint publication of both academies. It is the last to be published in the framework of the Medieval Academy series of Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristoielem. S. Pines CONTENTS Preface 7 Introduction 13 CONCERNING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERE BY AVERROES Chapter One 39 Chapter Two 74 Chapter Three 99 Chapter Four 112 Chapter Five 120 Chapter Six 123 Bibliography 139 Index of References 144 Index of Names and Subjects 148 Hebrew Section see p. 7 PREFACE Averroes is primarily known for his many commentaries on Aristotle's works and for his Tahdfut al-Tahafut, "The Incoherence of the Incoherence." He was also the author of a number of independent treatises dealing with a variety of philosophical and theological topics.