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Birth and Death
Pierre M. Duhem was born in Paris, France on June 10, 186. He was a French theoretical physicist who worked on thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of elasticity. As a philosopher of science, he is remembered principally for his views on the indeterminacy of experimental criteria He passed away on September 14, 1916. -
The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory
One of Duhem's known texts on Philosophy of Science is The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. In this work he is disagreeing with Newton's theory that universal mutual gravitation comes from phenomena. He said that this theory clearly goes against Kepler's laws of planetary motion. He introduced Instrumentalism, the under determination of theories by evidence (Duhem-Quine thesis), and confirmation holism (similar to Duhem-Quine thesis). -
Duhem-Quine thesis continued
As popular as the Duhem–Quine thesis may be in philosophy of science, Pierre Duhem and Willard Van Orman Quine stated very different theses. Duhem believed that only in the field of physics can a single individual hypothesis not be isolated for testing. He says in no tentative terms that experimental theory in physics is not the same as in fields like physiology and certain branches of chemistry. Whereas Quine believed it applied to all subjects. Willard Van Orman Quine lived 1908-2000. -
Duhem-Quine thesis
The Duhem-Quine thesis named after Pierre Duhem and Willard Van Orman Quine. This thesis, also referred to as the Duhem–Quine problem states that it is impossible to test a scientific hypothesis in isolation, because an empirical test of the hypothesis requires one or more background assumptions. It argues that no scientific hypothesis is by itself capable of making predictions. -
Duhem-Quine thesis continued
Developing predictions from the hypothesis requires background assumptions that several other hypotheses are correct. That an experiment works as predicted or that previous scientific theory is accurate. A bundle of hypotheses as a whole can be tested against the empirical world and be falsified if it fails the test, the Duhem–Quine thesis says it is impossible to isolate a single hypothesis in the bundle. -
Duhem-Quine thesis Video
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citations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Duhem
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duhem/
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pierre_Duhem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Duhem#/media/File:Pierre_Duhem.jpg
https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/d/duhem.htm
https://sciencemeetsfaith.wordpress.com/2019/06/10/pierre-duhem-an-uneasy-genius/
https://www.wvquine.org/wvq-obit.html
