34
edits
Changes
no edit summary
Duhem opposed many of the beliefs accepted at the time including the idea of infallibilism. At the time, as a result of Newton’s Experimentum Crucis, many scientists and philosopher’s believed in the idea of crucial experiments. These are experiments that determine if a hypothesis or theory is superior or all other theories and hypothesis. Duhem developed the idea of under-determinism which stated it was impossible to know whether data proved a theory to be superior or simply supported an underlying assumption.[[CiteRef::Kanschik(2009)]]
He rejected both Newton's theory and atomism accepting his own idea of thermodynamics. Although Duhem's rejection of atomism was a belief in instrumentalism, he did believe that there was an ultimate truth. Certain groups of physics such as thermodynamics was a way to reach it. He believed that generalized thermodynamics could provide the foundation of all physics and chemistry.[[CiteRef::Hackett (1996)]]
|Major Contributions=1. Duhem on both the inductive method and hypothetico-deductive method