Emile Meyerson's writings on the philosophy of science are a rich source of ideas and information concerning many philosophical and historical aspects of the development of modem science. Meyerson's works are not widely read or cited today by philosophers or even philosophers of science, in part because they have long been out of print and are often not available even in research libraries. There are additional chevaux de!rise for all but the hardiest scholars: Meyerson's books are written (...) in French (and do not all exist in English versions) and deal with the subject matter of science - ideas or concepts, laws or principles, theories - and epis temological questions rather than today's more fashionable topics of the social matrix and external influences on science with the concomitant neglect of the intellectual content of science. Born in Lublin, Poland, in 1859, Meyerson received most of his education in Germany, where he studied from the age of 12 to 23, preparing himself for a career in chemistry.! He moved to Paris in 1882, where he began a career as an industrial chemist. Changing his profession, he then worked for a time as the foreign news editor of the HAVAS News Agency in Paris. In 1898 he joined the agency established by Edmond Rothschild that had as its purpose the settling of Jews in Palestine and became the Director of the Jewish Colonization Association for Europe and Asia Minor. These activities represent Meyerson's formal career. (shrink)

Paru pour la premiere fois en 1908, l'essai d'Emile Meyerson Identite et realite demeure aujourd'hui un classique de la philosophie des sciences, dont A. Koyre a salue l'importance. Un premier aspect important de cet ouvrage concerne la conception et le statut meme de la science (physique, biologie, etc.). Meyerson developpe une critique profonde de la conception positiviste de la science formulee par Auguste Comte, en montrant l'impossibilite de penser des rapports phenomenaux sans leur presupposer des supports: la legalite (...) ne peut pas se resoudre dans la causalite. C'est la raison pour laquelle l'auteur s'efforce de definir un substantialisme renouvele, apte a echapper aux critiques positivistes. L'autre these essentielle de cet essai se rapporte bien entendu au celebre concept de causalite scientifique : le concept de legalite mis en jeu dans la conception positiviste de la science ne suffit pas, car la science cherche egalement a expliquer les phenomenes; et c'est precisement cette explication, qui consiste dans l'identification de l'antecedent au conequent, que l'auteur appelle la causalite scientifique, et qu'il distingue et oppose a la causalite theologique aussi bien qu'a la causalite efficiente. (shrink)

When the author of Identity and Reality accepted Langevin's suggestion that Meyerson "identify the thought processes" of Einstein's relativity theory, he turned from his assured perspective as historian of the sciences to the risky bias of contemporary philosophical critic. But Emile Meyerson, the epis temologist as historian, could not find a more rigorous test of his conclusions from historical learning than the interpretation of Einstein's work, unless perhaps he were to turn from the classical revolution of Einstein's relativity (...) to the non-classical quantum theory. Meyerson captures our sympathy in all his writings: "... the role of the epistemologist is... in following the development of science" (250); the study of the evolution of reason leads us to see that "man does not experience himself reasoning... which is carried on unconsciously," and as the summation of his empirical studies of the works and practices of scientists, "reason... behaves in an altogether predict able way:... first by making the consequent equivalent to the antecedent, and then by actually denying all diversity in space" (202). If logic - and to Meyerson the epistemologist is logician - is to understand reason, then "logic proceeds a posteriori. " And so we are faced with an empirically based Par menides, and, as we shall see, with an ineliminable 'irrational' within science. Meyerson's story, written in 1924, is still exciting, 60 years later. (shrink)

Je pensais, en vous lisant, a ces grands sapins qui se dressent sur les pentes rocailleuses des Vosges, poses sur une mince couche de terre vegetale: en regardant de pres, on apercoit un immense reseau de racines et de radicelles, qui vont chercher au loin la nourriture et qui se contournent avec un art extraordinaire pour faire que l'arbre se tienne debout. Votre doctrine, elle aussi, est simple et droite; mais elle pousse par la racine - vous venez de le (...) montrer - une foule de prolongements qui assurent sa solidite et sa vitalite. C'est en ces termes qu'Henri Bergson accusait reception du dernier grand livre d'Emile Meyerson (1859-1933). Repute surtout pour ses analyses de la science classique et de la physique contemporaine, Meyerson developpe dans Du cheminement de la pensee, son chant du cygne, la theorie generale de la connaissance qu'il avait en vue des ses premiers ecrits de philosophie des sciences. Cet expose est pour lui l'occasion de mettre sa pensee a l'epreuve de nouveaux objets comme la logique et les mathematiques, et de s'expliquer, a travers un parcours foisonnant, avec les auteurs les plus celebres de son temps, de Frege a Husserl, de Wittgenstein a Whitehead, des membres du Cercle de Vienne aux pragmatistes americains. (shrink)

Le sens commun vise-t-il la connaissance? Le sens commun et la quantité.--Hegel, Hamilton, Hamelin et le concept de cause.--Philosophie de la nature et philosophie de l'intellect.--De l'analyse des produits de la pensée.--Les mathématiques et le divers.--Le savoir et l'univers de la perception immédiate.--La notion de l'identique.--Jean Rey et la loi de la conservation de la matière.--Théodore Turquet de Mayerne et la découverte de l'hydrogène.--La coupellation chez les anciens Juifs.--Y a-t-il un rhythme dans le progrès intellectuel?

O texto parte da pergunta sobre como enfocar a problemática da cidadania e sua relação com a atuação dos movimentos sociais nas sociedades atuais. Frente à diversidade de definições de cidadania e a pluralidade morfológica dos movimentos, a proposição é mudar o enfoque, centrando-o em modelos de análise global da sociedade, no marco de propostas contratualistas. Reformas recentes no Brasil, com a descentralização ainda em curso, oferecem a oportunidade de visualizar o enfoque e mostrar por que ONGs e novas formas (...) de filantropia crescente entram em conflito com os movimentos sociais. (shrink)

During the last decades in Brazil, two societal projects strived for hegemony: a democratic and participatory project disputed against an alliance of the emerging bourgeoisie with traditional political forces. The PT-led government, driven by Lula da Silva (2003–2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016), representative of the democratic and participatory line, implemented many innovative policies concerning notably social citizenship rights and industrialization. Perhaps, like many other Latin American countries during the first pink tide, it was unsuccessful in transforming the old economic, political, (...) and social frameworks to provide a suitable environment for new politics. The text examines this period, emphasizing improvements in political participation, inclusive social policies, and the relationship between the government and social movements, as well as some flaws that hastened its demise. (shrink)

Current philosophy of science seems to be giving an increasingly historical emphasis to the hypothetical character of its theoretical constructs and to the consequent penetration of facts by theory. This tendency has not been fostered by the influence of Whewell. He remains isolated in his historical period, a figure left behind by the progress of philosophy and science. Yet there are two important lines of thought that have considered themselves in continuity with Whewell. One runs through French positivistic neo-Kantianism to (...) Emile Meyerson, the other derives from Mach's studies in the history of science and has some important repercussions in the Vienna Circle, particularly in the work of Otto Neurath. Marcucci seems to be more aware of the former line of thought than of the latter. However this circumstance does not affect the excellent quality of this historical exposition since its author is not aiming at a rational reconstruction of Whewell's philosophy that might be marred by a distortion in perspective. The need for such a serious reconstruction is however urgent; this study, with its emphasis on the problems of induction and idealization and on the mathematics of teleology, will certainly stimulate the present demand for further work on Whewell.--A. M. (shrink)

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In May 1933 the historian of chemistry Hélène Metzger addressed a letter to the renowned historian and philosopher of science Émile Meyerson, a cri de coeur against Meyerson’s patronizing attitude toward her. This recently discovered letter is published and translated here because it is an exceptional human document reflecting the gender power structure of our discipline in interwar France. At the age of forty‐three, and with five books to her credit, Metzger was still a junior scholar in the (...) exclusively male community of French historians and philosophers of science. We sketch the institutional setting of higher learning in France at the time, noting the limited openings it offered to would‐be femmes savantes, and situate Metzger in this context. We also describe the philosophical differences between Metzger and Meyerson. Though Metzger never managed to obtain a post of her own, in her letter to Meyerson she forcefully lays claim, at least, to a mind of her own. (shrink)

PART ONE IDENTITE ET REALITE The program of Emile Meyerson's investigations is to discover inductively the a priori principles of human thinking. ...

In his celebrated historic-epistemological work Identité et réalité, Émile Meyerson claimed that the scientific conservation principles were first suggested and accepted for philosophical reasons, and only afterwards were submitted to experimental tests. One of the instances he discussed in his book is the principle of mass conservation in chemical reactions. Meyerson pointed out that several authors, from Antiquity to Kant, accepted the idea of quantitative conservation of matter; and Lavoisier himself was strongly influenced by a priori ideas, using (...) this principle instead of attempting to test it. This paper will review Meyerson’s claim and historic evidence, focusing especially the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when the principle of mass conservation was tested in highly accurate experiments. Instead of confirming the principle, some of those experiments led to the detection of anomalies. Hans Landolt, for instance, noticed that there were some small violations of the principle. He observed mass variations of about 10−6 in chemical reactions produced in hermetically sealed glass tubes. Since Landolt was a famous chemist, his results produced a strong response. Several researchers repeated his experiments, with different results. Landolt himself improved his experiments, with a balance that could detect mass changes of 10−7. After changes of the experimental procedure, the chemical reactions did not show significant mass changes. There was not, however, any “crucial experiment” “proving” that mass was conserved. The observed anomalies were set aside mainly by theoretical reasons, after the discovery of radioactivity and the development of the theory of relativity. (shrink)

The issue of democracy is alive once more. There is a growing number of works debating the current state of democracy both in theory and practice.1 In particular a pragmatist conception of democracy has also been revived. Not only has a Deweyan version of a participatory democracy become the focus but the intricacies of a Rortian version have also come to the forefront, from both sympathetic as well as critical viewpoints.2 Thus the impression that the contemporary world is in quite (...) an exigent need of reconsidering—and perhaps even forming a novel conception of—democracy seems to be obvious, at least from a global point of view.3 Moreover, the fact that the idea or ideal of democracy still seems to be .. (shrink)

Comprises the Charles F. Deems Lectures delivered at New York University in 1968. Discusses the significance of the Holocaust, emphasizing theological issues, and its uniqueness in history. An authentic response to it - religious or secular - is a commitment to the autonomy and security of the State of Israel. Refers to Jewish midrash to explore the meaning and significance of the Holocaust and relates Jewish thinking about the Holocaust to Jewish thinking about earlier catastrophes. Jewish particularism remains a scandal (...) to modern secularism. Pt. 3 (p. 67-104), "The Commanding Voice of Auschwitz", states that the death of God occurs in the inward realm of the spirit alone and nowhere else. The imperative for Jews is not to flee being Jewish: "Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. They are commanded to survive as Jews". (shrink)

Excerpt from Schelling Cette ardente propagande en faveur de Fichte, tout au tant que l'appréciation de Fichte lui - mème, ont amené à désigner sous le nom de période fichtéenne l'époque de Tü bingen et de Leipzig Où Schelling écrit ses premiers trai tés de philosophie générale un accord complet avec Fichte aurait donc précédé la période suivante qui est celle de la philosophie de lanature. Pourtant de ces traités les uns, écrits a Tübingen, sont antérieurs aux études physiques de (...) Leipzig, tandis que les autres, écrits à Leipzig, sont de la mème époque que les deux premiers grands traités de philosophie de la Nature. Or Metzger a démontré récem ment par une analyse très serrée des traités de l'époque de Tübingen que l'influence de Fichte fut, dès le début, beau coup moins considérable qu'on ne le croit en général. La doctrine de Fichte reposait sur le criticisme kantien, qui est une doctrine de la connaissance etschelling, peu au courant des idées de Kant, ne se place pas au point de vue de la théorie de la connaissance pour la comprendre et la juger. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Gerald Holton has famously described Einstein’s career as a philosophical “pilgrimage”. Starting on “the historic ground” of Machian positivism and phenomenalism, following the completion of general relativity in late 1915, Einstein’s philosophy endured (a) a speculative turn: physical theorizing appears as ultimately a “pure mathematical construction” guided by faith in the simplicity of nature and (b) a realistic turn: science is “nothing more than a refinement ”of the everyday belief in the existence of mind-independent physical reality. Nevertheless, Einstein’s mathematical constructivism (...) that supports his unified field theory program appears to be, at first sight, hardly compatible with the common sense realism with which he countered quantum theory. Thus, literature on Einstein’s philosophy of science has often struggled in finding the thread between ostensibly conflicting philosophical pronouncements. This paper supports the claim that Einstein’s dialog with Émile Meyerson from the mid 1920s till the early 1930s might be a neglected source to solve this riddle. According to Einstein, Meyerson shared (a) his belief in the independent existence of an external world and (b) his conviction that the latter can be grasped only by speculative means. Einstein could present his search for a unified field theory as a metaphysical-realistic program opposed to the positivistic-operationalist spirit of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

In Professional Ethics and Civic Morals , Emile Durkheim outlined the core of his theory of morality and social rights which was to dominate his work throughout the course of his life. In Durkheim's view, sociology is a science of morals which are objective social facts, and these moral regulations form the basis of individual rights and obligations. This book is crucial to an understanding of Durkheim's sociology because it contains his much-neglected theory of the state as a moral institution, (...) and it provides an understanding of his critique of anomie and egoistic individualism. The growing interest in cultural revolution and moral regulation make this edition of Durkheim's classic work especially timely. The new preface by Bryan Turner sets the book in its intellectual and historical context, and illustrates the relevance of this work to present day debates on the state, society, and moral regulation. (shrink)