Ziel und Struktur der physikalischen Theorien

Description

The major part of this book is a reprint of the 1908 German translation of the author's famous work on "experimental philosophy'' [J. A. Barth, Leipzig, 1908; Jbuch 39, 834]. The original French edition appeared in 1906 [La théorie physique: son objet et sa structure, Chevalier et Rivière, Paris, 1906], and the second edition [Marcel Rivière et Cie., Paris, 1914] was translated into English by O. P. Wiener [The aim and structure of physical theory, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J., 1954; MR0058551]; this edition also included two later articles by the author [Ann. Philosoph. Chrétienne (4) 77 (1905), no. 1, 44–67; ibid. (4) 77 (1905), no. 2, 133–159; Rev. Générale Sci. Pures Appl. 19 (1908), 7–19; Jbuch 39, 91]. The edition under review also contains an introduction by Lothar Schäfer, in which he evaluates the importance of Duhem's work for contemporary philosophy of science (particularly, his support of the point of view of Lakatos, Feyerabend and Agassi against Popper). The introduction contains a secondary bibliography of over a hundred articles and books relating to Duhem's theses.

Reviewed by J. S. Joel