Information AboutPierre Duhem |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PIERRE DUHEM | |
| 1861 births | |
| duhem, pierre | |
| 1916 deaths | |
| alumni of the École normale supérieure | |
| historians of science | |
| philosophers of science | |
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PHILOSOPHY Duhem adopted an Instrumentalist view of science. He gave his name to the Quine-Duhem Thesis , 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. 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. Pierre Duhem believed that ''only in the field of Physics '' we cannot refute a single individual hypothesis, but a whole theoretical group. He says in no uncertain terms that experimental theory in Physics is not the same as in the case of fields like Physiology and certain branches of Chemistry . Also Duhem's conception of theoretical group has its limits, since it 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. Even mathematics and logic can be revised in light of recalcitrant experience, a statement that Duhem never held. 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 . He is also known for much work on the history of science in the Medieval period. This revolved most around the period in Europe from 1200 to the Reformation. This related to his strong Catholic faith as he wished to show the Church had been a positive force on the history of science. He therefore faced some criticism of bias. This criticism had non-religious grounds too as he tended to have a dismissive view of British science as "broad and shallow." BIBLIOGRAPHY
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