La théorie physique : son objet, sa structure

It took more than a century to The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, the major work of Pierre Duhem in the philosophy of science, to become a classic. But usually only some of its passages are remembered, such as the critique of crucial experiments or the rejection of Mechanism which is analyzed as a kind of metaphysical explanation. Yet, many other questions in the philosophy of physics are addressed in this book: the use of models, the construction of magnitudes, the question of approximation, the relationship between mathematics and physics, the use of history in the teaching of physics.

In order to explain the reasons why its reception has been delayed, this new edition opens with an unpublished presentation of the different intellectual and political contexts in which Duhem and his theses were read in the twentieth century. A bibliography guides readers in the secondary literature devoted to Duhem. Each chapter is abundantly annotated, making it possible to reconstruct the genesis of the work, to situate it with respect to the philosophy and science of its time, and to understand the progression of the arguments.