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Duhem on Maxwell: A Case-Study in the Interrelations of History of Science and Philosophy of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Roger Ariew  and
Peter Barker
Roger Ariew
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Peter Barker
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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Extract

Since the revival of historicist philosophy of science in the 1960s many philosophers have acknowledged a debt to Duhem. But Duhem’s opinions are imperfectly understood and, as McMullin has shown in his (1970) and (1979), there are many strands in the current revival of historicism. We consider here Duhem’s views on the role of history in the appraisal of scientific theories. However, there is no single text offering Duhem’s views on the subject; rather, they are revealed during their application to various historical and contemporary cases. Duhem’s most sustained examination of a contemporary case is his critique of Maxwell’s science and scientific methodology.

Duhem’s critique of Maxwell is not a set of isolated or incidental dicta, but the expression of Duhem’s mature thought over the last quarter-century of his life, ranging from (at least) 1893 to his death in 1916.

Type
Part II. History and Philosophy of Science
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1986 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1986 , 1986 , pp. 145 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1986

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