The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory

Description

This classic work in the philosophy of physical science is an incisive and readable account of the scientific method. Pierre Duhem was one of the great figures in French science, a devoted teacher, and a distinguished scholar of the history and philosophy of science. This book represents his most mature thought on a wide range of topics.* * *[une version alternative bien formatée](https://isidore.co/calibre/browse/book/3413)[PDF, EPUB, & RTF](https://isidore.co/calibre/browse/book/3413)* * *This book is an unaltered photoreprint of Wiener's translation [Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1954; [MR0058551](http://ams.rice.edu/mathscinet/search/publdoc.html?r=1&pg1=MR&s1=58551&loc=fromrevtext)] of the second edition (1914) of Duhem's *La théorie physique* (TP), which originally appeared in 1906 as the book version of a series of recent journal articles. For some reason Wiener's preface has been omitted, so that it is replaced rather than supplemented by the English translation of a new introduction written by the French philosopher Jules Vuillemin, who provides quite an elaborate and critical survey of Duhem's philosophy. Although promising an analysis of "the English version of Duhem's work'' (p. xv), Vuillemin naturally cites TP by page number; and in a paroxysm of carelessness the publishers reproduce those numbers rather than the ones of the edition under review. Like Duhem himself, Vuillemin fails to distinguish English from British science (pp. xv–xvi, xxvii). He also alludes to one of Duhem's philosophical articles of the 1890s, but not to the recent compilation of six of them by S. Jaki [[ *Prémices philosophiques*](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=6087), Brill, Leiden, 1987]. Reviewed by [I. Grattan-Guinness](http://ams.rice.edu/mathscinet/search/author.html?mrauthid=76265)