Thinker · TH-0337
Pierre Duhem
Pierre Duhem was a French physicist, philosopher and historian of science who spent most of his career at the University of Bordeaux. In The…
1861 – 1916 · Paris; Lille; Rennes; Bordeaux
Traditions: Modern European
Pierre Duhem was a French physicist, philosopher and historian of science who spent most of his career at the University of Bordeaux. In The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory he argued that a physical hypothesis is never tested in isolation: a failed prediction shows only that something in the whole group of theory and auxiliary assumptions is wrong. This holism, later extended by Quine, became a standard reference point in philosophy of science. His histories of medieval physics helped revive the study of science before Galileo.
Key ideas
- An experiment can refute only a whole set of hypotheses together, never a single one in isolation.
- There is no crucial experiment that settles between two theories once and for all.
- Physical theory aims to represent and classify experimental laws economically rather than explain hidden reality.
- Medieval natural philosophy prepared the ground for early modern physics.
Major works
- The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (La Théorie physique: son objet, sa structure, 1906)
- To Save the Phenomena (Sōzein ta phainomena, 1908)
- Le Système du monde
In the conversation
- Debate A model can work for decades without being true, and instrumentalism is the honest response
- Debate Saving a theory with an auxiliary hypothesis is often exactly the right move
- Debate Scholastic reasoning was rigorous, but it was rigour inside a fence
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Pierre Duhem takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 6.8 Philosophy of Science What makes a claim scientific?