Pierre Duhem

Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (French: [pjɛʁ moʁis maʁi dy.ɛm]; 9 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French physicist, mathematician, historian and philosopher of science. He is best known for his work on chemical thermodynamics, for his philosophical writings on the indeterminacy of experimental criteria, and for his historical research into the science of the European Middle Ages. As a scientist, Duhem also contributed to hydrodynamics and to the theory of elasticity.

Duhem's views on the philosophy of science are explicated in his 1906 work The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. In this work, he opposed Newton's statement that the Principia's law of universal mutual gravitation was deduced from 'phenomena', including Kepler'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, following Hume's logical critique of induction. 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 perturbations caused deviations from Keplerian orbits. Since no proposition can be validly 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 under-determination or Duhem–Quine thesis, which holds that for any given set of observations there is an innumerably large number of explanations. It is, in essence, the same as Hume's critique of induction: all three variants point at the fact that empirical evidence cannot force the choice of a theory or its revision. Possible alternatives to induction are Duhem's instrumentalism and Popper's thesis that we learn from falsification.

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. Pierre Duhem believed that experimental theory in physics is fundamentally different from fields like physiology and certain branches of chemistry. 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 and mathematics 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.

A quote of Duhem on physics:

A theory of physics is not an explanation. It is a system of mathematical propositions, deduced from a small number of principles, which have for their aim to represent as simply, as completely and as exactly as possible, a group of experimental laws.

Duhem argues that physics is subject to certain methodological limitations that do not affect other sciences. In his The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1914), Duhem provided a devastating critique of Baconian crucial experiments. According to this critique, an experiment in physics is not simply an observation, but rather an interpretation of observations by means of a theoretical framework. Furthermore, no matter how well one constructs one's experiment, it is impossible to subject an isolated single hypothesis to an experimental test. Instead, it is a whole interlocking group of hypotheses, background assumptions, and theories that is tested. This thesis has come to be known as confirmation holism. This inevitable holism, according to Duhem, renders crucial experiments impossible. More generally, Duhem was critical of Newton's description of the method of physics as a straightforward "deduction" from facts and observations.

In the appendix to The Aim and Structure, entitled "Physics of a Believer," Duhem draws out the implications that he sees his philosophy of science as having for those who argue that there is a conflict between physics and religion. He writes, "metaphysical and religious doctrines are judgments touching on objective reality, whereas the principles of physical theory are propositions relative to certain mathematical signs stripped of all objective existence. Since they do not have any common term, these two sorts of judgments can neither contradict nor agree with each other" (p. 285). Nonetheless, Duhem argues that it is important for the theologian or "metaphysician" to have detailed knowledge of physical theory in order not to make illegitimate use of it in speculations.

Nicole Oresme, a prominent medieval scholar. Duhem came to regard the medieval scholastic tradition as the origin of modern 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 (The System of World: A History of Cosmological Doctrines from Plato to Copernicus). Unlike many former historians (e.g. Voltaire and Condorcet), who denigrated the Middle Ages, he endeavored to show that the Roman Catholic Church 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, where he encountered the works of medieval mathematicians and philosophers such as John Buridan, Nicole Oresme and Roger Bacon, 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 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."

Duhem popularized the concept of "saving the phenomena." In addition to the Copernican Revolution debate of "saving the phenomena" (Greek σῴζειν τὰ φαινόμενα, sozein ta phainomena) versus offering explanations that inspired Duhem was Thomas Aquinas, who wrote, regarding eccentrics and epicycles, that

Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: firstly, for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle. [...] Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof of a principle, but as confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results, as in astronomy the theory of eccentrics and epicycles is considered as established, because thereby the sensible appearances of the heavenly movements can be explained; not, however, as if this proof were sufficient, forasmuch as some other theory might explain them. [...]

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 and the Duhem–Margules equation. Duhem thought that from the first principles of thermodynamics physicists should be able to derive all the other fields of physics—e.g., chemistry, mechanics, and electromagnetism. Duhem, influenced by Macquorn Rankine's "Outlines of the Science of Energetics", carried out this project in Traité de l'Énergétique (1911) but was unable to subject electromagnetism to thermodynamic first principles.

With the physicist, philosopher and historian of science Ernst Mach, Duhem also shared a scepticism with regard to the existence of atoms.

• (1886). Le Potentiel Thermodynamique et ses Applications à la Mécanique Chimique et à l'Étude des Phénomènes Électriques. Paris: A. Hermann.
• (1888). De l'Aimantation par Influence. Suivi de Propositions Données par la Faculté. Paris, Gauthier-Villars et Fils.
• (1891). Cours de Physique Mathématique et de Cristallographie de la Faculté des Sciences de Lille. Paris: A. Hermann.
• (1891–1892). Leçons sur l'Électricité et le Magnétisme. Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, tome I, tome II, tome III.
• (1893). Introduction à la Mécanique Chimique. Paris: G. Carré.
• (1894). Sur les Déformations Permanentes et l'Hysteresis. Bruxelles: Impr. de Hayez.
• (1895). Les Théories de la Chaleur.
• (1896). Théorie Thermodynamique de la Viscosité, du Frottement et des faux Équilibres Chimiques. Paris: A. Hermann.
• (1897–1898). Traité Élémentaire de Mécanique Chimique Fondée sur la Thermodynamique. Paris: A. Hermann.
  • (1897). Les Mélanges Doubles: Statique Chimique Générale des Systèmes Hétérogènes.
  • (1898). Faux Équilibres et Explosions.
• (1902). Le Mixte et la Combinaison Chimique. Essai sur l'Évolution d'une Idée. Paris: C. Naud.
• (1902). Les Théories Électriques de J. Clerk Maxwell: Étude Historique et Critique. Paris: A. Hermann.
• (1902). Thermodynamique et Chimie: Leçons Élémentaires à l'Usage des Chimistes. Paris: A. Hermann.
• (1903). Recherches sur l'Hydrodynamique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
• (1903). Les Origines de la Statique. Paris: A. Herman, tome I, tome II.
• (1905). L'Évolution de la Mécanique. Paris, A. Hermann.
• (1906). La Théorie Physique. Son Objet, sa Structure. Paris: Chevalier & Riviére (Vrin, 2007).
• (1906). Recherches sur l'Élasticité. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
• (1903–13). Études sur Léonard de Vinci, ceux qu'il a lus, ceux qui l'ont lu, 3 vol., Paris: A. Hermann.
  • Première série : Ceux qu'il a lu et ceux qui l'ont lu, 1906 [1]
  • Deuxième série [2]
  • Troisième série : Les précurseurs parisiens de Galilée, 1913 [3]
• (1908). Josiah-Willard Gibbs, à propos de la Publication de ses Mémoires Scientifiques. Paris: A. Hermann.
• (1908). Sauver les Phénomènes. Essai sur la Notion de Théorie Physique de Platon à Galilée. Paris: A. Hermann (Vrin, 2005).
• (1909). Le Mouvement Absolu et le Mouvement Relatif. Paris: Impr. Librairie de Montligeon.
• (1911). Traité d'Énergétique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, tome I, tome II.
• (1913–1959). Le Système du Monde. Histoire des Doctrines Cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic: tome I, tome II, tome III, tome IV, tome V, tome VI, tome VII, tome VIII, tome IX, tome X.
• (1915) La Science Allemande. Paris: A. Hermann.

Articles

• (1908). "La Valeur de la Théorie Physique," Journal de Mathémathiques Pures et Appliquées, Vol. XIX, pp. 7–19.
• (1908). "Ce que l'on Disait des Indes Occidentales avant Christophe Colomb," Journal de Mathémathiques Pures et Appliquées, Vol. XIX, pp. 402–406.
• (1909). "Note: Thierry de Chartres et Nicholas de Cues," Revues des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques, Troisième Année, pp. 525–531.
• (1911). "Sur les Petites Oscillations d'un Corps Flottant," Journal de Mathémathiques Pures et Appliquées, Vol. VII, Sixiéme Série, pp. 1–84.
• (1911). "Le Temps selon les Philosophes Hellénes," Part II, Revue de Philosophie, Vol. XIX, pp. 5–24, 128–145.
• (1914). "Roger Bacon et l'Horreur du Vide," in A.G. Little (ed.), Roger Bacon Essays. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press.
• (1915). "Quelques Réflexions sur la Science Allemande," Revue des Deux Mondes, Vol. XXV, pp. 657–686.
• (1916). "L'Optique de Malebranche," Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, Vol. XXIII, No. 1, pp. 37–91.

Duhem's mathematics papers from NUMDAM

Works in English translation

• Duhem, Pierre (1903). Thermodynamics and Chemistry. A Non-mathematical Treatise for Chemists and Students of Chemistry. (1st ed.). New York; London: J. Wiley & Sons; Chapman & Hall. OCLC 3383130. Retrieved 2011-08-31. 
• Duhem, Pierre (1954). The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2nd. Ed., 1991. (excerpts: excerpt 1, & excerpt 2 "Heavenly bodies: Theory, physics and philosophy")
  • "Physical Theory and Experiment," in Herbert Feigl & May Brodbeck (ed.), Readings in the Philosophy of Science. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1953, pp. 235–252.
• Duhem, Pierre (1969). To Save the Phenomena, an Essay on the Idea of Physical Theory from Plato to Galileo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. OCLC 681213472.  (excerpt)
• Duhem, Pierre (1985). Medieval Cosmology: Theories of Infinity, Place, Time, Void, and the Plurality of Worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-16922-4. OCLC 712044683.  (excerpt: "The 12th century birth of the notion of mass which advised modern mechanics ... and void and movement in the void")
• Duhem, Pierre (1988). The Physicist as Artist: The Landscapes of Pierre Duhem. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. ISBN 0707305349
• Duhem, Pierre (1990). "Logical Examination of Physical Theory," Synthese, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 183–188.
• Duhem, Pierre (1990). "Research on the History of Physical Theories," Synthese, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 189–200.
• Duhem, Pierre (1991). German Science. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court. ISBN 0812691245
• Duhem, Pierre (1991). The Origins of Statics The Sources of Physical Theory. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. ISBN 9789401137300. Retrieved 2014-08-11. 
• Duhem, Pierre (1996). Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-87220-308-2. OCLC 33968944. 
• Duhem, Pierre (2011). Commentary on the Principles of Thermodynamics by Pierre Duhem. Dordrecht; New York: Springer. ISBN 978-94-007-0311-7. OCLC 733543752. 
• Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie (2015). The Electric Theories of J. Clerk Maxwell. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science. 314. Alan Aversa (trans.). Cham: Springer International Publishing. ASIN B00YOFPEC6. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-18515-6. ISBN 978-3-319-18515-6. Retrieved 2015-07-08. 

Articles

• "Physics & Metaphysics" (1893)
• "Physics of a Believer"

Articles contributed to the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia

• History of Physics
• Pierre de Maricourt
• Jordanus de Nemore
• Nicole Oresme
• Albert of Saxony
• Thierry of Freburg
• Jean de Sax

The above bibliography is not exhaustive. See his complete primary sources and secondary sources at the Duhem entry of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.