Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (; 9 June[Jaki, Stanley L. (1987). Uneasy Genius: The Life and Work of Pierre Duhem. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, p. 3.] 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of elasticity. Duhem was also a prolific historian of science, noted especially for his pioneering work on the European Middle Ages.
Early life and education
Pierre Duhem was born in Paris on 10 June 1861. He was the son of Pierre-Joseph Duhem, who was of
Flemish people origins, and Marie Alexandrine
née Fabre, whose family hailed from
Languedoc.
Pierre-Joseph worked as a sales representative in the textile industry and the family lived in a modest neighborhood on the Rue des Jeûneurs, just south of
Monmartre.
The family was devoutly
Catholic Church and its conservative outlook was influenced by having lived through the
Paris Commune of 1871, which the Duhems saw as a manifestation of the anarchy that must follow from the rejection of religion.
The young Pierre completed his secondary studies at the Collège Stanislas, where his interest in the physical sciences was encouraged by his teacher Jules Moutier, who was a theoretical physicist and the author of influential textbooks on thermodynamics.
Duhem prepared a doctoral thesis on the use of the thermodynamic potential in the theory of electrochemical cells. In his thesis, Duhem explicitly attacked the "principle of maximum work" as framed by Marcellin Berthelot. The jury rejected that thesis and Duhem's academic career appears to have been hampered ever after by his differences with Barthelot.
Despite his accomplishments as a theoretical physicist, and later as a historian and philosopher of science, Duhem never obtained the academic position in Paris that he sought. He found work first at the University of Lille (1887–1893), then briefly at the University of Rennes (1893–1894), and finally as a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Bordeaux, where he was based for the rest of his career.
Theoretical physics
Among scientists, Duhem is best known today for his work on chemical thermodynamics, and in particular for the Gibbs–Duhem and Duhem–Margules equations. His approach was strongly influenced by the early works of Josiah Willard Gibbs, which Duhem effectively explained and promoted among French scientists. In continuum mechanics, he is also remembered for his contribution to what is now called the Clausius–Duhem inequality.
Duhem was a supporter of Energeticism and was convinced that all physical phenomena, including mechanics, electromagnetism, and chemistry, could be derived from the principles of thermodynamics.[Macquorn Rankine (1855). " Outlines of the Science of Energetics," The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Vol. II, pp. 120–140.] Duhem carried out this intellectual project in his Traité de l'Énergétique (1911), but was ultimately unable to reduce electromagnetic phenomena to thermodynamic first principles.
Duhem shared Ernst Mach's skepticism about the physical reality and usefulness of the concept of .[See Hentschel (1988) on these and other parallels between Duhem and Mach, and on their correspondence.] He therefore did not follow the statistical mechanics of James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, and Gibbs, who explained the laws of thermodynamics in terms of the statistical properties of mechanical systems composed of many atoms.
Duhem was an opponent of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.[Gillies, Donald. Philosophy of Science in the Twentieth Century, 1993.] In 1914, Duhem commented that Einstein's relativity theory "has turned physics into a real chaos where logic loses its way and common-sense runs away frightened".[Lakatos, Imre. (2001). The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 21. ] In his 1915 book La Science Allemande, he argued strongly against relativity.[Lowinger, Armand. (1967). The Methodology of Pierre Duhem. AMS Press. p. 25. ]
History of science
Duhem is well known for his work on the history of science,
["Pierre Duhem, himself a distinguished physicist, initiated in heroic fashion, almost singlehandedly, the modern study of the history of medieval science by the simple but effective expedient of reading and analyzing as many medieval scientific manuscripts as possible." — Palter, Robert M. (1961). Preface to Toward Modern Science, Vol. I. New York: The Noonday Press, p. ix.][Paul, Harry W. (1972). "Pierre Duhem: Science and the Historian's Craft," Journal of the History of Ideas, 33, pp. 497–512.][Murdoch, John E. (1991). "Pierre Duhem and the History of Late Medieval Science and Philosophy in the Latin West," in R. Imbach & A. Maierù, eds., Gli Studi di Filosofia Medievale fra Otto e Novecento. Rome: Edizioni di Estoria e Letteratura, pp. 253–302.]["By his numerous publications, Duhem made medieval science a respectable research field and placed the late Middle Ages in the mainstream of scientific development. He thus filled the hiatus that had existed between Greek and Arabic science, on the one extreme, and early modern science in the seventeenth-century Europe, on the other. For the first time, the history of science was provided with a genuine sense of continuity." — Grant, Edward (1996). The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, p. xi.] 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).
As a traditionalist Catholic, Duhem rejected the Enlightened conception of the European
Middle Ages as intellectually barren. Instead, he endeavored to show that the Medieval Church had helped to foster the growth of Western science. Duhem's work as a historian of medieval science began with his research on the origins of
statics, in the course of which he encountered the works of medieval mathematicians and philosophers such as
John Buridan,
Nicole Oresme, and
Roger Bacon. Duhem came to see in them the true founders of modern science, who in his view had anticipated many of the discoveries of
Galileo Galilei and later early modern scientists.
[Wallace, William A. (1984). Prelude, Galileo and his Sources. The Heritage of the Collegio Romano in Galileo's Science. N.J.: Princeton University Press.] Duhem claimed that "the mechanics and physics of which modern times are justifiably proud" had proceeded, "by an uninterrupted series of scarcely perceptible improvements, from doctrines professed in the heart of the medieval schools."
Duhem helped to reintroduce the concept of "saving the phenomena" into the modern philosophy of science. In addition to the debates of the Copernican Revolution on "saving the phenomena" (σῴζειν τὰ φαινόμενα, sozein ta phainomena,[An ancient view (attributed to Plato by Simplicius of Cilicia) on hypotheses, theories and phaenomena, on what scientists, or more historically accurately (ancient) astronomers, are for, are supposed to do; see
Wherein "The oldest extant text in which the expression "save the phenomena" is only of the first century A.D. namely Plutarch's On the Face in the Orb of the Moon", hence see also (in Greek) Plutarch, De faciae quae in orbe lunae apparet, 923a (or in English) at the Perseus Project][Cf. ( excerpt on pg. 132).][Cf. Andreas Osiander's Ad lectorem introduction to Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.] contrasted with providing a physical explanation[Pierre Duhem thinks "Johannes Kepler is, unquestionably, the strongest and most illustrious representative of that tradition," i.e., the tradition of realism, that physical theories offer explanations in addition to just "saving the phenomena."]) Duhem was motivated by the thinking of Thomas Aquinas, who wrote concerning the epicycles and eccentrics of classical astronomy that
Philosophy of science
In the philosophy of science, Duhem is best known for arguing that hypotheses are not straightforwardly refuted by experiment and that there are no crucial experiments in science. Duhem’s formulation of his thesis is that “if the predicted phenomenon is not produced, not only is the questioned proposition put into doubt, but also the whole theoretical scaffolding used by the physicist”. Duhem's views on the philosophy of science are explained in his 1906 work
The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory.
In this work, he opposed
Isaac Newton's statement that the
Principia's law of universal mutual gravitation was deduced from '
phenomena', including
Johannes 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
David 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
. Since no contingent
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.
Opposition to the English inductivist tradition
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[ (1906), Duhem critiqued the Baconian method notion of "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.
]
Duhem's philosophy of science and faith
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 thesis. 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. Duhem's philosophy of science was criticized by one of his contemporaries, Abel Rey, in part because of what Rey perceived as influence on the part of Duhem's Catholic faith. Although Duhem was indeed a believer, a sincere and fervent Catholic, he was eager to point out that his works in physics and chemistry should be considered on their own merits, independent of his religion. They were not examples of "Catholic science," nor even colored by his Catholic faith.
Honors and death
Duhem received an Honorary degree from the Jagiellonian University, in Kraków, Poland, in 1900. On that same year he was elected as a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was promoted to titular non-resident member in 1913. Towards the end of his life, Duhem was recommended as a candidate for the chair of History of Science at the prestigious Collège de France, in Paris. Duhem, however, refused to be considered for the position, explaining in a letter to his daughter that "I am a theoretical physicist. Either I will teach theoretical physics at Paris or else I will not go there."
Works
Books
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(1886). Le Potentiel Thermodynamique et ses Applications à la Mécanique Chimique et à l'Étude des Phénomènes Électriques. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1888). De l'Aimantation par Influence. Suivi de Propositions Données par la Faculté. Paris, Gauthier-Villars et Fils.
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(1891). Cours de Physique Mathématique et de Cristallographie de la Faculté des Sciences de Lille. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1891–1892). Leçons sur l'Électricité et le Magnétisme. Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, tome I ( English EPUB), tome II ( English EPUB), tome III ( English EPUB).
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(1893). Introduction à la Mécanique Chimique. Paris: G. Carré.
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(1894). Sur les Déformations Permanentes et l'Hysteresis. Bruxelles: Impr. de Hayez.
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(1895). Les Théories de la Chaleur.
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(1896). Théorie Thermodynamique de la Viscosité, du Frottement et des faux Équilibres Chimiques. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1897–1898). Traité Élémentaire de Mécanique Chimique Fondée sur la Thermodynamique. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1897). Les Mélanges Doubles: Statique Chimique Générale des Systèmes Hétérogènes.
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(1898). Faux Équilibres et Explosions.
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(1902). Le Mixte et la Combinaison Chimique. Essai sur l'Évolution d'une Idée. Paris: C. Naud.
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(1902). Les Théories Électriques de J. Clerk Maxwell: Étude Historique et Critique. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1902). Thermodynamique et Chimie: Leçons Élémentaires à l'Usage des Chimistes. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1903). Recherches sur l'Hydrodynamique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
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(1905–6). Les Origines de la Statique. Paris: A. Herman, tome I, tome II.
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(1905). L'Évolution de la Mécanique. Paris, A. Hermann.
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(1906). La Théorie Physique. Son Objet, sa Structure. Paris: Chevalier & Riviére (Vrin, 2007).
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(1906). Recherches sur l'Élasticité. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
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(1906–13). Études sur Léonard de Vinci, ceux qu'il a lus et ceux qui l'ont lu, 3 vol., Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1908). Josiah-Willard Gibbs, à propos de la Publication de ses Mémoires Scientifiques. Paris: A. Hermann.
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(1908). Sauver les Phénomènes. Essai sur la Notion de Théorie Physique de Platon à Galilée. Paris: A. Hermann (Vrin, 2005).
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(1909). Le Mouvement Absolu et le Mouvement Relatif. Paris: Impr. Librairie de Montligeon. English EPUB
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(1911). Traité d'Énergétique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, tome I ( English EPUB), tome II ( English EPUB).
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(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.
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(1915) La Science Allemande. Paris: A. Hermann.
Articles
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(1908). "La Valeur de la Théorie Physique," Journal de Mathémathiques Pures et Appliquées, Vol. XIX, pp. 7–19.
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(1908). "Ce que l'on Disait des Indes Occidentales avant Christophe Colomb," Journal de Mathémathiques Pures et Appliquées, Vol. XIX, pp. 402–406.
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(1909). "Note: Thierry de Chartres et Nicholas de Cues," Revues des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques, Troisième Année, pp. 525–531.
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(1911). "Sur les Petites Oscillations d'un Corps Flottant," Journal de Mathémathiques Pures et Appliquées, Vol. VII, Sixiéme Série, pp. 1–84.
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(1911). "Le Temps selon les Philosophes Hellénes," Part II, Revue de Philosophie, Vol. XIX, pp. 5–24, 128–145.
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(1914). "Roger Bacon et l'Horreur du Vide," in A.G. Little (ed.), Roger Bacon Essays. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press.
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(1915). "Quelques Réflexions sur la Science Allemande," Revue des Deux Mondes, Vol. XXV, pp. 657–686.
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(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
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Excerpts: excerpt 1, & excerpt 2 "Heavenly bodies: Theory, physics and philosophy"
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"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.
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( excerpt)
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(excerpt: " The 12th century birth of the notion of mass which advised modern mechanics ... and void and movement in the void")
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Duhem, Pierre (1988). The Physicist as Artist: The Landscapes of Pierre Duhem. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
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Duhem, Pierre (1990). "Logical Examination of Physical Theory," Synthese, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 183–188.
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Duhem, Pierre (1990). "Research on the History of Physical Theories," Synthese, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 189–200.
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Duhem, Pierre (1991). German Science. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court.
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( EPUB)
Articles
Articles contributed to the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia
- The above bibliography is not exhaustive. See his complete primary sources and secondary sources at the Duhem entry of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
See also
Sources
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Dijksterhuis, E.J. (1959). "The Origins of Classical Mechanics from Aristotle to Newton", in M. Clagett (ed). Critical Problems in the History of Science, pp. 163–184. University of Wisconsin Press.
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Hentschel, Klaus (1988). "Die Korrespondenz Duhem-Ernst Mach: Zur 'Modellbeladenheit' von Wissenschaftsgeschichte", Annals of Science, 73–91.
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Moody, Ernest A. (1966). "Galileo and his Precursors", in C.L. Gollino, ed., Galileo Reappraised. Berkeley: University of California Press, 23–43.
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Picard, Émile (1922). "La Vie et l'Oeuvre de Pierre Duhem," in Discours et Mélanges. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
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Further reading
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Alexander, Peter (1964). "The Philosophy of Science, 1850–1910," in D.J. O'Connor, ed., A Critical History of Western Philosophy. New York: The Free Press, pp. 402–425.
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Roger Ariew (2011) Pierre Duhem, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, January 20, 2011.
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Dawson, Christopher (1959). "The Scientific Development of Medieval Culture," in Medieval Essays. New York: Image Books, pp. 122–147.
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( EPUB)
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Deltete, Robert J. (2008). "Man of Science, Man of Faith: Pierre Duhem's 'Physique de Croyant'," Zygon 43 (3), pp. 627–637.
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Jaki, Stanley L. (1985–86). "Science and Censorship: Hélène Duhem and the Publication of the 'Système du Monde'," The Intercollegiate Review 21 (2), pp. 41–49 Rep.,. WARNING:
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Jaki, Stanley L. (1992). Reluctant Heroine, The Life and Work of Helene Duhem. Scottish Academic Press.
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Jaki, Stanley L. (1993). "Medieval Christianity: Its Inventiveness in Technology and Science," in Technology in the Western Political Tradition. Ed. M.R. Zinman. Cornell University Press, pp. 46–68.
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Kahler, Erich (1943). "Reason and Science," in Man: The Measure. New York: Pantheon Books, Inc.
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Quinn, Philip L. (1974). "What Duhem Really Meant," in Robert S. Cohen & Marx W. Wartofsky, eds., Methodological and Historical Essays in the Natural and Social Sciences. Dordrecht: Reidel Publishing Company.
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Schaffers, V. (1922). "Pierre Duhem et la Théorie Physique," Revue des Questions Scientifiques, pp. 42–73.
External links
