Braucht die Theoretische Physik den Religiësen Glauben?

Abstract

As common wisdom has it, Pierre Duhem was one of the most important proponents of French philosophy of science around 1900. Usually, his conception of physical theories is regarded as the incarnation of the ancient - proto-positivistic - programme of "saving the phenomena". This view is correct, but it needs to be supplemented by taking account of the discursive context of Duhem's position. In this paper it is argued that Duhem's philosophical colleague Abel Rey played a central role in this connection.