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81Gaston Bachelard: Critic of Science and the ImaginationRoutledge. 2001.In this new study, Cristina Chimisso explores the work of the French Philosopher of Science, Gaston Bachelard by situating it within French cultural life of the first half of the century. The book is introduced by a study - based on an analysis of portraits and literary representations - of how Bachelard's admirers transformed him into the mythical image of the Philosopher, the Patriarch and the 'Teacher of Happiness'. Such a projected image is contrasted with Bachelard's own conception of philo…Read more
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77The tribunal of philosophy and its norms: History and philosophy in Georges Canguilhem's historical epistemologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 34 (2): 297-327. 2003.In this article I assess Georges Canguilhem's historical epistemology with both theoretical and historical questions in mind. From a theoretical point of view, I am concerned with the relation between history and philosophy, and in particular with the philosophical assumptions and external norms that are involved in history writing. Moreover, I am concerned with the role that history can play in the understanding and evaluation of philosophical concepts. From a historical point of view, I regard…Read more
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62From phenomenology to phenomenotechnique: the role of early twentieth-century physics in Gaston Bachelard’s philosophyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 39 (3): 384-392. 2008.Bachelard regarded the scientific changes that took place in the early twentieth century as the beginning of a new era, not only for science, but also for philosophy. For him, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics had shown that a new philosophical ontology and a new epistemology were required. I show that the type of philosophy with which he was more closely associated, in particular that of Léon Brunschvicg, offered to him a crucial starting point. Brunschvicg never considered scienti…Read more
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58A Mind Of Her Own: Hélène Metzger to Émile Meyerson, 1933Isis 94 (3): 477-491. 2003.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 ex…Read more
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56Hélène Metzger: the history of science between the study of mentalities and total historyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 32 (2): 203-241. 2001.In this article, I examine the historiographical ideas of the historian of chemistry Hélène Metzger against the background of the ideas of the members of the groups and institutions in which she worked, including Alexandre Koyré, Gaston Bachelard, Abel Rey, Henri Berr and Lucien Febrve. This article is on two interdependent levels: that of particular institutions and groups in which she worked and the École Pratique des Hautes Études) and that of historiographical ideas. I individuate two partic…Read more
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40From the Series Editor's Introduction: For much of the twentieth century, French intellectual life was dominated by theoreticians and historians of mentalite. Traditionally, the study of the mind and of its limits and capabilities was the domain of philosophy, however in the first decades of the twentieth century practitioners of the emergent human and social sciences were increasingly competing with philosophers in this field: ethnologists, sociologists, psychologists and historians of science …Read more
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36Constructing narratives and reading texts: approaches to history and power struggles between philosophy and emergent disciplines in inter-war FranceHistory of the Human Sciences 18 (3): 83-107. 2005.In inter-war France, history of philosophy was a very important academic discipline, but nevertheless its practitioners thought it necessary to defend its identity, which was threatened by its vicinity to many other disciplines, and especially by the emergent social sciences and history of science. I shall focus on two particular issues that divided traditional historians of philosophy from historians of science, ethnologists and sociologists, and that became crucial in the definition of the ide…Read more
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36The Life Sciences and French Philosophy of Science: Georges Canguilhem on NormsIn Hanne Andersen, Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao González, Thomas Uebel & Gregory Wheeler (eds.), New Challenges to Philosophy of Science, Springer Verlag. pp. 399--409. 2013.Although in the last decades increasingly more philosophers have paid attention to the life sciences, traditionally physics has dominated general philosophy of science. Does a focus on the life sciences and medicine produce a different philosophy of science and indeed a different conception of knowledge? Here Cristina Chimisso does not attempt to give a comprehensive answer to this question; rather, she presents a case study focussed on Georges Canguilhem. Canguilhem continued the philosophical …Read more
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34Intuition and discursive knowledge: Bachelard's criticism of BergsonBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (4): 825-843. 2022.In this paper, I discuss Gaston Bachelard’s criticism of Henri Bergson’s employment of intuition as the specific method of philosophy, and as a reliable means of acquiring knowledge. I locate Bachelard’s criticism within the reception of Bergsonian intuition by rationalist philosophers who subscribed to the Third Republic’s ethos. I argue that the reasons of Bachelard’s rejection of Bergsonian intuition were not only epistemological, but also ethical and pedagogical. His view of knowledge as med…Read more
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29Narrative and epistemology: Georges Canguilhem's concept of scientific ideologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 54 64-73. 2015.In the late 1960s, Georges Canguilhem introduced the concept of ‘scientific ideology’. This concept had not played any role in his previous work, so why introduce it at all? This is the central question of my paper. Although it may seem a rather modest question, its answer in fact uncovers hidden tensions in the tradition of historical epistemology, in particular between its normative and descriptive aspects. The term ideology suggests the influence of Althusser’s and Foucault’s philosophies. Ho…Read more
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28The mind and the faculties: the controversy over 'primitive mentality' and the struggle for disciplinary space at the inter-war SorbonneHistory of the Human Sciences 13 (3): 47-68. 2000.This article deals with some aspects of the study of the mind between the 1920s and 1940s at the University of Paris. Traditionally the domain of philosophy, the study of the mind was encroached upon by other disciplines such as history of science, ethnology, sociology and psychology. These disciplines all had weak institutional status and were struggling to constitute themselves as autonomous. History of science did not as a rule reject its relationship with philosophy, whereas ethnology, socio…Read more
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28A Matter Of Substance?: Gaston Bachelard on chemistry’s philosophical lessonsVienna Circle Institute Yearbook 17 33-44. 2014.Philosophers have paid far less attention to chemistry than they have to physics. It is only in the last twenty years or so that the philosophy of chemistry has gained an important place in the philosophy of science. However, before then, there have been important exceptions to the neglect of chemistry. Notably, chemistry has been very important in the French tradition: Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent has argued that the attention that Pierre Duhem, Emile Meyerson, Hélène Metzger and Gaston Bachelar…Read more
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28The Five Senses: A Philosophy of Mingled BodiesInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 24 (2): 226-228. 2010.This Article does not have an abstract
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27Bernadette bensaude-Vincent and Christine Blondel , Des savants face à l'occulte 1870–1940. Sciences et société. Paris: Editions la découverte, 2002. Pp. 233. Isbn 2-7071-3616-6. 17.50 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 36 (1): 87-127. 2003.
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25Jean‐François Stoffel. Bibliographie d’Alexandre Koyré. Introduction by, Paola Zambelli. 195 pp., index. Firenze: Leo Olschki, 2000 (review)Isis 95 (4): 737-738. 2004.
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22Aspects of Current History of Philosophy of Science in the French TraditionIn F. Stadler, D. Dieks, W. Gonzales, S. Hartmann, T. Uebel & M. Weber (eds.), The Present Situation in the Philosophy of Science, Springer. pp. 41--56. 2010.There seems to be a general understanding that French philosophy of science is different from ‘mainstream’ philosophy of science; this difference has been made official, as it were, in reference works and Encyclopaedias. In this, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy is paradigmatic: it has two entries, one for ‘Philosophy of Science’, and another for ‘French philosophy of science’. Is this distinction correct, and where does it come from? In this paper Cristina Chimisso gives a mixed answer:…Read more
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21Hélène Metzger on Precursors: A Historian and Philosopher of Science Confronts Her Evil DemonHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (2): 331-353. 2021.The historian and philosopher of science Hélène Metzger (1889–1944) delivered “Le rôle des précurseurs dans l’évolution de la science” in 1939 as a lecture of the Institut d’Histoire des Sciences et Techniques of the University of Paris, later published in their journal Thalès. In this talk, Metzger not only attacks the notion of “precursor” and a history of science focused on “great men” and their discoveries, but also makes a strong case for the philosophical value of the history of science. W…Read more
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18Penelope J. Corfield. Time and the Shape of History. xx + 309 pp., figs., bibl., index. New Haven, Conn./London: Yale University Press, 2007. $45 (review)Isis 99 (3): 662-664. 2008.
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17Hlne Gispert , Par la science, pour la patrie: Lassociation franaise pour lavancement Des sciences , un projet politique pour une socit savante. Collection carnot. Rennes: Presses universitaires de rennes, 2002. Pp. 372. Isbn 2-86847-681-3. 23.00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 37 (2): 225-227. 2004.
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17The identity and routes of philosophy of scienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 37 (2): 353-360. 2006.Essay review of: A. Brenner, Les origines françaises de la philosophie des sciences, Paris, PUF, 2003.
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15This article examines the life and activities of the Italian intellectual Aldo Mieli as examples of the impact on intellectual agendas of interference by the authorities. Mieli is nowadays known as one of the founders of the history of science as an autonomous discipline and as a pioneer of gay rights. For most of his life he managed to further his activities related to the history of science. The political career that he started as a young man, however, was cut short because the Italian Sociali…Read more
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13Nicole Hulin , physique et humanités scientifiques: Autour de la réforme de l'enseignement de 1902. Etudes et documents. Villeneuve d'ascq: Presses universitaires du septentrion, 2000. Pp. 339. Isbn 2-85939-624-1. Ff 170.00, euro 24.92 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 34 (3): 341-373. 2001.
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12Teresa Castelão. Gaston Bachelard et les études critiques de la science. Preface by, Jean‐Jacques Wunenburger. 216 pp. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2010 (review)Isis 102 (4): 814-815. 2011.
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12Nicole Hulin, Les femmes et l'enseignement scientifique. Science, histoire, société. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2002. Pp. XI+227. Isbn 2-13-052659-4. €23.50 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 36 (3): 373-374. 2003.
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9The Formation of the Scientific Mind, by Gaston Bachelard, introduced, translated and annotated by Mary McAllester JonesJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 35 (1): 106-108. 2004.
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8By starting from a reflection on the article by Anastasios Brenner which precedes mine in this edited book, I discuss the 'difficult' relation of history and philosophy, and draw examples from the tradition of historical epistemology. On this basis, I evaluate the current status of history of philosophy of science, and I conclude with the defence of a truly historical approach to philosophy of science and of the philosopher's reflexivity