Poincaré, Philosopher of Science

This volume presents a selection of papers from the Poincaré Project of the Center for the Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon, bringing together an international group of scholars with new assessments of Henri Poincaré's philosophy of science-both its historical impact on the foundations of science and mathematics, and its relevance to contemporary philosophical inquiry. The work of Poincaré (1854-1912) extends over many fields within mathematics and mathematical physics. But his scientific work was inseparable from his groundbreaking philosophical reflections, and the scientific ferment in which he participated was inseparable from the philosophical controversies in which he played a pre-eminent part. The subsequent history of the mathematical sciences was profoundly influenced by Poincaré's philosophical analyses of the relations between and among mathematics, logic, and physics, and, more generally, the relations between formal structures and the world of experience. Thepapers in this collection illuminate Poincaré's place within his own historical context as well as the implications of his work for ours.

Inhalt

Preface.- Introduction; Robert DiSalle and María de Paz.- Part I Poincaré's Philosophy of Science.- 1 Portrait of Henri Poincaré as a young philosopher: the formative years (1860-1873); Laurent Rollet.- 2 The Invention of Convention; Janet Folina.- 3 The third way epistemology: A re-characterization of Poincaré's conventionalism; María de Paz.- 4 Poincaré, Indifferent Hypotheses and Metaphysics; Antonio Videira.- Part II Poincaré on the Foundations of Mathematics.- 5 Poincaré in Göttingen; Reinhard Kahle.- 6 Poincaré on the Principles of the Calculus; Augusto J. Franco de Oliveira.- 7 Does the French Connection (Poincaré, Lautman) provide some insights regarding the thesis that meta-mathematics is an exception to the slogan that mathematics concerns structures?; Gerhard Heinzmann.- Part III Poincaré on the Foundations of Physics.- 8 Henri Poincaré: The status of mechanical explanations and the foundations of statistical mechanics; João Príncipe.- 9 Poincaré: A scientist inspired byhis philosophy; Isabella Serra.- 10 Poincaré on the construction of space-time; Robert DiSalle.- Contributors.- Index.