Sources et nature de la philosophie de la physique d’Henri Poincaré

Abstract

This study shows that the epistemological reflections of Poincaré emerged as part of his scientific researches and they were partly inspired by his reading of Helmholtz and especially Maxwell. It provides a systematic analysis of philosophical texts published by Poincaré about 1900, where he finds that the physics of principles is the culmination of the evolution of theories. Finally, it brings together some of his theses on physics with Kant’s Transcendental Analytic and Dialectic.