Pierre Duhem | |
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Born | Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem 9 June 1861 Paris, France |
Died | 14 September 1916 Cabrespine, France | (aged 55)
Education | École Normale Supérieure (diploma, 1882) |
Era | 19th-century philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Continental philosophy French historical epistemology[1] Conventionalism[2] |
Thesis | Étude historique sur la théorie de l'aimantation par influence (1888) |
Main interests | Thermodynamics, philosophy of science, history of science |
Notable ideas | Clausius–Duhem inequality Gibbs–Duhem equation Duhem–Margules equation Duhem–Quine thesis Confirmation holism Thermodynamic potential |
Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (French: [pjɛʁ mɔʁis maʁi dy.ɛm, – moʁ-] ; 9 June[4] 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French theoretical physicist who worked on thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of elasticity. Duhem was also a historian of science, noted for his work on the European Middle Ages, which is regarded as having created the field of the history of medieval science.[5] As a philosopher of science, he is remembered principally for his views on the indeterminacy of experimental criteria (see Duhem–Quine thesis).