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Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem was a French physicist, mathematician, and science philosopher. Duhem was born June 10, 1861 in France to a large family. In 1882, Duhem enrolled at Ecole Normale Superieure where he eventually graduated with a license of mathematics and physics (Ariew). Fast forward six years, Pierre Duhem earns a doctorate in applied mathematics (Ariew).
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Duhem published his views on the philosophy of science. He discussed his opposing views on Newton’s law of gravitation by saying it directly contradicted Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion. Duhem said that Newton’s laws were no logically deduced from Kepler’s Laws. (Duhem). -
Pierre Duhem and Willard Van Orman Quine argued that no scientific hypothesis is capable of making predictions alone (Sack). They believed that predictions from hypothesis requires other positive hypotheses. The Duhem-Quine Thesis directly contrasted Bacon by saying a physics experiment in an interpretation of observations and is impossible to isolate a single hypothesis. -
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In 1903 Duhem wrote L’évolution de la mécanique where he “dismissed the Middle Ages as scientifically sterile” (Ariew). When writing Les origines de la statique Duhem was introduced to the works of Jordanus de Nemore. Through the years, Duhem continued researching the history of sciences. It lead to his writing of Le système du monde which consisted of a total of 12 volumes about the history of cosmology to include Galileo and Copernicus. -
Ariew, Roger. "Pierre Deuhem." 21 September 2020. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition). 20 09 2021.
Duhem, Pierre. La Théorie Physique: son Objet et sa Structure (The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954.
Sack, Harald. Pierre Duhem and the Role of Theory in Science. 10 June 2016. 19 November 2021.