Pierre Duhem’s use of the return to the sources as a justification tool

Les origines de la statique, published in 1905 by physicist and historian of physical theories Pierre Duhem, offers not only a radically new interpretation of the history of statics but also represents a milestone in the methodology of history of science thanks to a particular form of historical rea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inTransversal (Belo Horizonte) no. 3; pp. 37 - 50
Main Authors Le Roux, Benjamin, Krasnodębski, Marcin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Graduate Program in History of Federal University of Minas Gerais 22.12.2017
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Subjects
History of Statics
Humanities and Social Sciences
Justification
Methodology in History of Science
Philosophy
Pierre Duhem
Scientometrics
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Les origines de la statique, published in 1905 by physicist and historian of physical theories Pierre Duhem, offers not only a radically new interpretation of the history of statics but also represents a milestone in the methodology of history of science thanks to a particular form of historical reasoning as deployed by the author to justify his hypotheses. This article uses a quantitative analysis of the references contained in the book’s footnotes in order to study the way Duhem validated his assertions. We highlight in particular his relentless will to return to the original texts. This method is one of the reasons why Duhem’s book (and more generally the Duhemian methodology) had such a lasting impact on French epistemology.
ISSN:2526-2270
2526-2270
DOI:10.24117/2526-2270.2017.i3.04