Abel Rey (; 29 December 1873,

Chalon-sur-Saône Chalon-sur-Saône (, literally ''Chalon on Saône'') is a city in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the largest city in the department; h ...

– 13 January 1940,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a French

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

. Abel Rey succeeded Gaston Milhaud as professor of the

history of philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

in its relation to science at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, and established the Institut d'histoire des sciences et des techniques to encourage cooperation between the

sciences Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

. It has been argued that Rey influenced

Philipp Frank Philipp Frank (March 20, 1884 – July 21, 1966) was a physicist, mathematician and philosopher of the early-to-mid 20th century. He was a logical positivist, and a member of the Vienna Circle. He was influenced by Mach and was one of the Machist ...

and the formation of the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, cha ...

. Rey's

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

was wide, including sciences from

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

, and deep, ranging from antiquity to the present; moreover, it included the study of culture's influence on the sciences of the time.

Works

*L'énergétique et le mécanisme au point de vue des conditions de la connaissance, Paris, F. Alcan, 1905 (reprinted 1923) *La théorie de la physique chez les physiciens contemporains, 1907 *La philosophie moderne, éd. Flammarion, 1908 *La science dans l'antiquité, dans L'évolution de l'humanité, vols. 1-5 ** La Science orientale avant les Grecs (1930) ** La jeunesse de la science grecque (1933) ** La maturité de la pensée scientifique en Grèce (1939) ** L'apogée de la science technique grecque : les sciences de la nature ; les mathématiques d'Hippocrate à Platon (1939) ** L'apogée de la science technique grecque : l'essor des mathématiques (posthume, 1946) *Psychologie, 1934 *Les mathématiques en Grèce, au milieu du Ve siècle, 1935

References

1873 births 1940 deaths 20th-century essayists 20th-century French non-fiction writers 20th-century French philosophers Epistemologists 20th-century French historians French male essayists French male non-fiction writers Historians of philosophy Historians of science Philosophers of culture Philosophers of history Philosophers of science Philosophy academics Philosophy writers {{France-philosopher-stub