Histoire de la physique

French text publication of the manuscript of the English article en-titled "Physics, History of" and published by Duhem in Volume 12 of the 1911 "Catholic Encyclopedia"

Realtà e rappresentazione : alle origini della «Théorie physique» (scritti 1892-1896)

Fra il 1892 e il 1896, lo scienziato francese Pierre Duhem pubblicò, nella «Revue des questions scientifiques», sette articoli che, per la prima volta, fecero conoscere la sua concezione della scienza a un pubblico più vasto. L’accoglienza reticente, persino ostile, che è stata loro riservata lo indurrà, già in questo breve lasso di tempo, a fare evolvere la sua concezione. Otto anni dopo sarà pubblicata la sua famosa «Théorie physique : son objet, sa structure», in cui sono integrati molti di questi testi. Offrendo per la prima volta l’edizione bilingue completa di questi sette articoli, il volume fornisce una migliore comprensione non solo dell’evoluzione del pensiero duhemiano, ma anche del contenuto del capolavoro di fama mondiale che ne sarebbe derivato. * * * Entre 1892 et 1896, le savant français Pierre Duhem fait paraître, dans la «Revue des questions scientifiques», sept articles qui, pour la première fois, font connaître sa conception de la science à un plus large public. L’accueil réticent, voire hostile, qui leur est réservé l’amènera, déjà au sein de ce court laps de temps, à faire évoluer sa conception. Huit ans plus tard paraîtra sa célèbre «Théorie physique : son objet, sa structure» dans laquelle plusieurs de ces textes se trouvent intégrés. En offrant pour la première fois l’édition bilingue intégrale de ces sept articles, ce volume permet donc de mieux comprendre non seulement l’évolution de la pensée duhémienne, mais encore le contenu du maître-ouvrage, mondialement connu, qui devait en résulter

Syntactic microvariation and methodology: problems and perspectives

Variation in empirical data has been a perseverant problem for theoretical linguistics, especially syntax. Data inconsistencies among authors allegedly analyzing the same phenomenon are ubiquitous in the syntactic literature (e.g., literature on focus-raising in Hungarian; É. Kiss 1987 vs. Lipták 1998), and partly result from the highly informal methodology of data collection. However, even if adequate controls are used to exclude potential biases, variation might remain. The general practice in syntactic research has been to ignore these „microvariations”-mainly in the lack of any systematic empirical method to detect them. The present paper shows that this practice leads to serious theoretical problems and proposes a new empirical method, cluster analysis, to discover, explore and systematize these variations. It also illustrates how this richer empirical basis gives rise to a more fine-grained theoretical analysis

Stability in Cosmology, from Einstein to Inflation

I investigate the role of stability in cosmology through two episodes from the recent history of cosmology: (1) Einstein’s static universe and Eddington’s demonstration of its instability, and (2) the flatness problem of the hot big bang model and its claimed solution by inflationary theory. These episodes illustrate differing reactions to instability in cosmological models, both positive ones and negative ones. To provide some context to these reactions, I also situate them in relation to perspectives on stability from dynamical systems theory and its epistemology. This reveals, for example, an insistence on stability as an extreme position in relation to the spectrum of physical systems which exhibit degrees of stability and fragility, one which has a pragmatic rationale, but not any deeper one