Reviews

Abstract

As Paul Feyerabend once remarked, philosophy of science is a subject with a great past. Let me for the moment leave aside his disillusioned impression that it had only a sad present and no future and concentrate on its past. It is surprising indeed that much has been published on the history of science in the last few decades, while only very few efforts have been made to give an overall description of the history of philosophy of science. That of course presupposes a defi nition or at least a rough idea of the subject. And along with that goes an answer to the question when it started and what has been part of it during its development. Some (as for instance John Losee, who in 1972 published the fi rst “Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science”, an early sort of history of the discipline) seem to think that philosophy of science already began with Aristotle’s Analytica Posteriora, while others would be inclined to have it start more than 2000 years later, let’s say with the Vienna Circle.

Jean Leroux, Une histoire comparée de la philosophie des sciences, Volume I: Aux sources du Cercle de Vienne, Volume II: L’empirisme logique en débat, Les Presses de l’université Laval, Québec (Canada) 2010