Science and Method
by Henri Poincaré · Science et Méthode
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1908
- Language
- French
- Length
- Medium · 290 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendScience and Method, translated by Francis MaitlandDover, 2003The standard translation, with a preface by Bertrand Russell.
These links go straight to Amazon and Bookshop.org and earn this site nothing today. Prices are the same either way. How this works.
The third of Poincaré's books on the philosophy of science. The first part asks how scientists choose which facts to study and includes his famous account of mathematical discovery, in which the answer to a problem came to him as he stepped onto a bus in Coutances after weeks of unconscious work. Later parts discuss chance and why it exists for us, the paradoxes of set theory and the logicist programme, and the new mechanics of Lorentz and relativity, the Milky Way and the theory of tides.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Science and Method are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
