Scientific Opportunism L’Opportunisme scientifique: An Anthology

216 Pages·2002·14.62 MB·English

by  Henri Poincaré (auth.)

Publications desArchives Henri-Poincare
Publications ofthe Henri Poincare Archives
TextesetTravaux,Approches PhilosophiquesenLogique,Mathematiqueset
Physique autourde 1900
Texts,Studiesand PhilosophicalInsightsinLogic,Mathematicsand Physics
around 1900
Editeur/ Editor:GerhardHeinzmann,Nancy,France
Henri-Poincare
Scientific Opportunism
L'Opportunisme scientifique
An Anthology
Compiled by Louis Rougier
Edited by Laurent Rollet
BirkhauserVerlag
Basel· Boston •Berlin
Editor:
LaurentRoUet
LaboratoiredePhilosophieetd'HistoiredesSciences
ArchivesHenri-Poincare
UMR7117duCNRS
UniversiteNancy2
23BoulevardAlbert1er
F-54015NancyCedex
France
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress,
WashingtonD.C.,USA
DieDeutscheBibliothek-CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Poincare,Henri:
Scientificopportunism:ananthology=L'opportunismescientifiqueI
HenriPoincare.Comp.byLouisRougier.Ed.byLaurentRollet.-Basel;
Boston;Berlin:Birkhliuser,2002
(PublicationsdesArchivesHenriPoincare)
ISBN3-7643-6539-0
ISBN 3-7643-6539-0BirkhauserVerlag,Basel-Boston- Berlin
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v
Table of Contents
Preface: HenriPoincare'sLastPhilosophicalBook ix
Introduction ix
Historyoftheproject x
UnpublisheddocumentsaboutRougier'sproject xii
Presentationoftheedition xxii
Acknowledgements xxvi
ScientificOpportunismIL'Opportunismescientifique 1
LivreI LesConventionsGeometriques 3
ChapitreIDesFondementsdelaGeometrie(1898) 5
ChapitreIILesFondementsdelaGeometrie(1902) 33
ChapitreIIINotesurlaGeometrieNonEuclidienne(1900) 47
LivreII LesApproximationsdelaM6caniqueCeleste 63
ChapitreIVSurlesHypothesesCosmogoniques(1911) 65
ChapitreV SurlaStabiliteduSystemeSolaire(1898) 77
ChapitreVILeProblemedesTroisCorps(1891) 85
ChapitreVIIConferencesurlesCometes(1910) 93
ChapitreVIII LeDemond'Arrhenius(1911) 101
LivreIII ProblemesScientifiquesActuels 105
ChapitreIXCournotetlesPrincipesduCalculInfinitesimal(1905) 107
ChapitreXLaLumiereetl'Electricited'apresMaxwelletHertz(1894) 117
ChapitreXILaTelegraphieSansFil(1909) 127
ChapitreXIILeLibreExamenenMatiereScientifique(1909) 139
Postface:AboutHenriPoincareandGustaveLeBon 149
ThecreationoftheBibliothequedePhilosophieScientifique 150
PoincareattheBibliothequedePhilosophieScientifique 154
Toconclude -158
Bibliography 159
Annexes
TranslationsofPoincare'sWritings 165
SourcesofPoincare'sPhilosophicalBooks 169
BibliographyofPoincare'sWritings 179
IndexNominum 205
Preface
IX
Henri Poincare's Last Philosophical Book
Introduction
According to commentators, scientists and historians of science, Henri Poincare was
probably one ofthe last universal scientists. His ability to embrace various fields of
scientificknowledgeandtoobtainsignificantresults ineachofthemcanbeconsidered,
without any doubt, as a distinctive mark ofgenius. Poincare managed to win a double
recognition: on the one hand, his mathematical works were accepted and given an
ovation by the scientific community; on the other hand, he was also in favor with the
general public. Indeed, the scientistsand the general public did notnecessarilyapplaud
the sameperson. Forthe firstgroup, Poincarewasthecreatoroffuchsian functions, the
authorofLesmethodesnouvellesdela mecaniqueceleste. Forthesecondgrouphewas
notonlya top-level mathematicianbutalsoa penetratingphilosopherofsciencewhose
reflectionshadpermittedhimtoentertheAcademieFran~aisein 1908.
Thissecondkindofpopularityisexplainedbythepublicationofthree majorphilo
sophical books: La science et ['hypothese (1902), La valeur de la science (1905) and
Science et methode (1908).1 These books had not been explicitly written for the occa
sion; theywereinfactconstitutedofvariousarticlesthathadbeenpreviouslypublished
in scientific, philosophical or scholarly reviews. The three books were published by
FlammarionEditionsintheBibliothequedePhilosophieScientifique, whichwasdirected
by Gustave Le Bon. They achieved a great success and rapidly became philosophical
bestsellers: in 1925, 40.000 copies of La science et ['hypothese had been printed
(32.000 for La valeurde lascienceand 22.000 for Scienceetmethode).2 Poincare died
in 1912 and a fourth volume ofhis philosophical works was then posthumously pub
lished by his heirs as Dernieres pensees (1913). Although Poincare did not directly
composeit, thisbookalso becameabestseller(16.000copiesin 1925).L'opponunisme
scientifique was intended to be the fifth (and final) volume ofPoincare'sphilosophical
writings. Louis Rougierhadelaboratedtheproject,with the collaboration ofGustave Le
Bon, and the recommendation ofEmile Boutroux and his son Pierre. Because ofthe
1RespectivelyinEnglish:ScienceandHypothesis,TheValueofScienceandScienceandMethod.
2Thesestatisticscomefroma 1925advertisementofF1ammarionEditions.AccordingtoBenoitMarpeau,
whostudiedtheaccountbooksoftheBibliothequedePhilosophieScientifique,in 1931 43.750copiesofLa
scienceetl'hypothesehadbeenprinted.Hethuswrites:«LetirageinitialdeLascienceetl'hypothese(1902)
esttresprudent- 1650exemplaires- maisestepuiseenquelquessemaines.Lenombredereeditions,de1100
puis a partirde 1906en general de 2200, s'eleve a 12 en 1914 pour un total de 20.900. Pour les autres
ouvrages,en 1914, lesniveauxatteintssontd'environ21.000pourLavaleurdelascience(1906) [sic], de
12.100pourScienceetmethode(1908),etde 7700pourDernierespensees, cederniertire initialementen
1913a5500,retirelamemeanneea2200.Autotal,environ61.700exemplairesonteteimprimesentre1902
et 1913,laplupartdejavenduspuisquelesreeditionsposterieuressontproches». BenoitMarpeau, Gustave
LeBon, parcoursd'un intellectuel 1841-1931, Paris, CNRS Editions, 2000, pp. 190-191. Note that these
figures onlyconcemthe Frencheditionsofthe books. In 1912,they had aIreadybeentranslated into most
Europeanlanguagesandweredistributedalloverthe world: for instance, in 1910onecouldfind German,
English,Spanish,Swedish,HungarianandJapaneseeditionsofLascienceetl'hypothese(cf.annexp.165).
x Preface
reservationsofPoincare'sfamily, thisbookwasneverpublishedandDernierespensees
remainedPoincare'slastphilosophicalbook.
NeverthelessPoincare'scorrespondence- whichiskeptinthe PoincareArchivesat
Nancy 2 University- contains a large amountofdocumentsconcerning the project, its
justificationand the discussions between Louis Rougierand the mathematician'sheirs.
Thisprefaceaimsatrestoring thisepisode,whichgivessomecrucial informationabout
theeditorialpracticesofPoincareandabouttheposterityofhisphilosophicalthinking.3
History ofthe project
Around 1919, Gustave Le Bon wrote a letterto Poincare's wife. As the directorofthe
Bibliotheque de Philosophie Scientifique at Flammarion, he asked her for the permis
sion to publish a new posthumous volume. Apparently, the project did not come from
him but from Louis Rougier, a young philosopher who was at that time professor of
philosophy in the secondary school of Algiers. According to Le Bon, Rougier had
noticed that several articles ofPoincare could constitute a new volume for this collec
tion. He had conversed with Emile Boutroux and his son Pierre about this project and
they had agreed on the necessity ofthe publication. Emile Boutroux was Poincare's
brother-in-law (he had married Poincare's sister, Aline, in 1876). He was one ofthe
mostprominentFrenchphilosophersofthetimeandhisphilosophyofcontingencyhad
exertedaprofoundinfluenceovertheformulationofPoincare'sconventionalism. Louis
Rougier was professeur agrege and was about to publish his doctoral thesis about
Poincare'sgeometricalphilosophy.4
Gustave Le Bonjoinedto his letterthe table ofcontents for the book. It was fore
seen that this volume would be entitled L'opportunisme scientifique- in reference to
Poincare's conventionalist conceptions- and that it would be divided into three parts:
1° «lesconventionsgeometriques», 2° «lesapproximations de lamecaniqueceleste»
and 3° «problemes scientifiques actuels». Rougier's aim was to assemble in a single
bookasetofrelativelyheteroclitearticlesthathadbecomerareoruntraceable: someof
them were very technical and made an extensive usage ofmathematical formalism (in
particular the note concerning non Euclidean geometry from Eugene Rouche and
Charles de Comberousse's Traite de geometrie); other articles fell within the field of
scientificpopularization(<< Leproblemedestroiscorps»or«Latelegraphiesanstil»).
Inotherwords, Rougier's projectwas to mix within the samebookphilosophical, scien-
3Ina moreprecise way, thepostscriptofthe book(p. 149 fT.) will beconcernedwith the relationships
betweenPoincareandGustaveLeBonwithinF1ammarion'sBibliothequedePhi/osophie&ientifique.
4Louis Rougier,Laphilosophiegeometriqued'HenriPoincare, Paris,Alcan, 1920. Rougierwasbornin
Lyonin 1889. HewasprofesseuragregeandDocteuresLettres. Duringhiscareer,hewasprofessoratthe
university of Besan~onand at the Royal University ofCairo. When the Second World War began, he
exhibitedhissympathytowardsthe Petainistgovernmentandthenchoseexile in England(in 1941 hewas
visitingprofessoratSaintJohnCollegeinLondon)andthentotheUnitedStates: from 1941 to 1943hewas
associateprofessorattheNewSchoolforSocialResearchinNew-York. Thisinstitutionwascreatedduring
thewarandintendedtowelcomeexiledEuropeanintellectuals(formoredetails,see[ChaubetILoyer2000)).
HeintroducedinFrancethe ideasoftheViennaCircleandwrotenumerousbookscoveringdifferent fields
(history, philosophy, politics). His most importantworks are Lespara/ogismesdu rationa/isme (1920)and
Traite de /a connaissance (1955). He obtained the Prix de /'Academie des &iences mora/es etpolitiques
(1968)andthePrixde/'AcademieFran~aise(1971).Hediedin1982.
HenriPoincare'sLastPhilosophicalBook xi
tific and popularization works; it was also to put on the same level ancient (indeed
sometimesoutofdate)andmorerecentpublications.
This project seemed artificial to Louise poincare and she fonnulated some serious
reservations against it. This lack ofenthusiasm- although this book was supposed to
honor the memory ofher husband- stemmed from two reasons: first, she thought that
Emile Boutroux had pronounced himselfin favor ofthe project too quickly, without
even having any precise infonnation about it. Secondly, she felt afraid that Poincare's
name had become, in the course ofyears, a pretext for subtle editorial and commercial
operations aiming at profitability. It was consequently with the concern to avoid any
commercial harnessing that she asked Jeanne and Leon Daum to examine the project
closelyinordertoevaluateitsscientificlegitimacy.5
Leon Daum seriouslyworked away at thisjob, analyzing each item ofthe planned
tableofcontents. This studyledhimto writea verylongnote(morethanfifteenpages)
in which he affinned, in the name ofPoincare's successors, the scientific inopportune
ness ofthis book. In the letter that he joined with this note (see page xvi), Daum ex
plainedto Rougier that this bookwas not adapted to a philosophical collection such as
the Bibliothequede Philosophie Scientifique; according to him, the articles in question
did not contain any ofthe innovative ideas, any ofthe new conceptions, which had
assured the successofPoincare'sphilosophical writings; onthe contrary, mostofthem
proposedsmallprecisionsorvariationsofexpressiondeprivedofphilosophical interest.
Moreover, the publicationofthe mathematician's collectedworks bytheAcademiedes
scienceswasonthewayandmadethisprojectofsecondaryimportance.6
For all these reasons, Louis Rougier and Gustave Le Bon's project failed. Of
course,RougieransweredDaum'sletterandsentaverylongargumentativenotetohim,
butobviouslywithouthope. Atthe verymosthecontentedhimselfwithindicatingthat,
in his conception, every variation ofexpression, repetition or precision was ofgreat
interestas far as itcontributedto a global understandingofPoincare'sthought. Finally,
his lastresortwas to insistonthe commercial dimensionofthe project: experiencehad
shownthatPoincarewasanauthorwhosoldwell,eventhoughnomorethanathousand
ofhisreaderswereabletounderstandhiswritings.'
Rather than to compose a new bookwhich would have had only a vague scientific
justification,DaumsuggestedtheadditionofseveralofthearticlesproposedbyRougier
in an appendix to a new edition of Demieres pensees. It was finally done in 1926.
Besides the nine original articles, the new edition included an appendix which was
5JeannePoincarewasbornin 1887andwastheeldestdaughterofpoincare(Yvonne,HenrietteandLeon
wererespectivelybornin1889,1891and1893).ShemarriedLeonDaumin1913.Daumwasbornin1887in
Nancyandcamefromawell-knownfamilyofglassartistswhoexertedanotableinfluenceontheartnouveau
movement (the so-called Ecole de Nancy). After his studies at the Ecolepolytechnique he integrated the
prestigiousEcoledes minesandthenbeganhiscareerasa miningengineerandadministrator. Hewasthus
successivelydepartmentalheadintheminesofMorocco(1913)andtheSarre(1919).In1927hebecamethe
general director ofthe Compagnie desforges et acieries de fa marine etd'Homecourt. After the Second
WorldWar,hewasadministratorofthe Union SiderurgiqueLorraine,ofGisorssmeltingfurnaces, ofSaint
EtiennesteelworksandoftheCreditNational. Daumendedhiscareerasamemberofthehighauthorityin
theCommunauteEuropeenneduCharbonetdeI'Acier(1952-1959).
6ThepublicationofPoincare'scollectedscientificworks(CEuvresscientifiquesdeHenriPoincare')wasat
thattimesupervisedbyGastonJuliaanditwasfinallyachievedin1956.Unfortunately,theelevenvolumesof
thiseditiondonotgathertogetherallofPoincare'swritingsandconsequentlypresentnumerousdeficiencies
withregardtohisproductionasaphilosopherandasciencepopularizer.
, Cf.theendofRougier'slettertoLeonDawn,p.xxi.
XII Preface
constitutedoffourarticles: «Lesfondements delageometrie»(1902),«Cournotetles
principes du calcul infinitesimal» (1905), «Le libre examen en matiere scientifique»
(1909),and«Ledemond'Arrhenius»(1911).8
Unpublished documents aboutRougier's project
The documents that we present in this sectioncome from the microfilms ofPoincare's
scientific correspondence.9 Theyconsistofa setofmixed-up fragmentary texts, drafts,
notesandlettercopies(approximatelythirtyleaves). Mostofthedocumentsareundated
andanimportantworkofreconstructionwasnecessaryinordertoproposeacorrectand
chronologicaltranscription.
Because ofthe diversity and heterogeneity ofthe documents we had to make sev
eral editorial choices. The undated papers are indicated by [n.d.]. Spelling mistakes
were corrected and the largest partofthe abbreviations was suppressed with the inten
tion of allowing a more fluid reading. We occasionally added in square brackets []
some precisions, which might be helpful for the understanding ofsome passages. We
also systematically suppressed the contractions of first names and surnames (for in
stance «H. P.» became «Henri Poincare»). Illegible passages are indicated by this
convention {ill.}. /
The notes and comments added bythe writers ofthe documents are given in foot
notes indicatedby *. On the contrary, numbered footnotes refer to editorial comments
about the documents themselves. Almost all documents are rough papers and thus
contain crossed outwords, sentences or paragraphs;the erased passages that mightbe
ofinterestareindicatedinfootnotes.
loUISE POINCARE TO JEANNE AND LEON DAUM
This document is the rough copy of a letter sent by Louise Poincare to her eldest
daughter Jeanne and her husband Leon Daum. It contains two essential papers: on the
onehand, acopyofGustaveLeBon's letterconcerningRougier'sproject; onthe other
hand, a copyofthe plannedtable ofcontents forL'opportunisme scientifique. Itis this
documentthatguidedthepreparationofthepresentedition.
8The 1963 FlammarioneditionofDemierespellSeescontainedthe following foreword(probablywritten
by Femand Braudel, the director ofthe Nouvelle BibliothequeScientifique): «[...] la premiere edition ne
a
comprenaitqueneuftextescomposesentre 1909et 1912.En 1926deja,pourrepondre diversesdemandes,
quelques autres textes plus anciens que Henri Poincare aurait eu la possibilite de faire figurer dans ses
precedentsvolumesde lacollectionG. Lebon(sic), onteteinseresdansunesecondeedition. Toutefois, Ia
famille du grand savant a demande que ces nouveaux textes, qui n'ont plus Ie meme caractere, soient
nettementseparesdeceuxquiconstituentveritablementles«dernierespensees»deHenriPoincare,etsoient
reunis en un appendice en fin de volume». Strangely, in this Flammarion new edition the order ofthe
chapterswascompletelychanged.
9ArthurMillermicrofilmedthiscorrespondenceduringthe70's.Acopyofthesemicrofilmsiskeptinthe
HenriPoincareArchivesatNancy2university.