The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory [antikvár]

FOREWORDPierre Duhem's Life and WorkBorn in Paris on June 10, 1861 and passing away in his country home at Cabrespine (Aude) on September 14, 1916 at the age of fifty-five, Pierre Duhem was one of the most original figures of French theoretic physics a half-century ago. Apart from his strictly scientific works which were brilliant indeed, notably in the domain of thermodynamics, he acquired an extremely extensive knowledge of the history of the physico-mathematical sciences and, after having given much thought to the meaning and scope of physical theories, he shaped a very arresting opinion concerning them, expounding it in various forms in numerous writings. Thus, an excellent theoretician of physics and historian of the sciences, possessing enormous erudition, he also made for himself a great name in scientific philosophy.Very gifted in mathematics and physics, Pierre Duhem at the age of twenty entered the École Normale Supérieure on the Rue d'Ulm in Paris; in this outstanding institution of higher education which has given France so many great teachers of literature and science, he was a brilliant student, and his attention was turned very quickly toward the study of thermodynamics and its applications, a domain, furthermore, which he was never to cease cultivating.Reflecting on the works of Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Clausius, Massieu, Gibbs and the other great originators of thermodynanjic conceptions, he was especially struck by the analogy between the methods of Lagrange's analytical mechanics and those of thermodynamics. These reflections led him at the age of twenty-three to introduce in a quite general way the notion of thermodynamic potential and to publish soon afterward a book, Le Potentiel thermodynamique et ses applications a la mécanique chimique et a la théorie des phénomenes électriques [Paris, 1886Translator].Having received first place in 1885 in the competitive examinations for teaching physics, Duhem, already known in scientific circles, became two years later lecturer in the Faculty of Sciences of Lille University, where he taught with brilliance hydrodynamics, elasticity, and acoustics. Very soon after his marriage in Lille his