Hélène Metzger (26 August 1889 – 7 March 1944) was a
French philosopher of science
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 Mesopo ...
.
In her writings she focused mainly on the
history of chemistry. She was murdered in
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
Early life and education
Hélène Bruhl was born on 26 August 1889 to an upper middle-class Jewish family in
Chatou
Chatou () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Chatou is a part of the affluent suburbs of western Paris and is on the northwest side of the Seine river about from the city's center.
Hi ...
. She was the niece of
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (10 April 1857 – 13 March 1939) was a French scholar trained in philosophy who furthered anthropology with his contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field interest was ways of thinking.
...
, an influential French
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
. Her father insisted that she and her sister stop their studies after only three years at university.
In 1912, she obtained a diploma in
crystalography. She married in 1914, and was widowed only a few months afterwards, after which she returned to research.
Research and writing
In 1918, Metgzer submitted a thesis on the emergence of the science of crystals. During the 1920s and 30s, she published six books on the history of chemistry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, whilst supporting herself on the money from her
dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...
.
Bibliography
*''La genèse de la science des cristaux'' (1918)
*''Les doctrines chimiques en France du début du XVIIe à la fin du XVIIIe siècle'' (1923)
*''Les Concepts scientifiques'' (1926)
*''Newton, Stahl, Boerhaave et la doctrine chimique'' (1930)
*''La chimie'' (1930)
*''La Philosophie de la matière chez Lavoisier'' (1935)
*''Attraction universelle et religion naturelle chez quelques commentateurs anglais de Newton'' (1938)
*''La Science, l’appel de la religion et la volonté humaine'' (1954)
*''La Méthode philosophique en histoire des sciences''(1987) (ed. Gad Freudenthal)
* "Extraits de lettres, 1921–1944," in Gad Freudenthal ''Études sur / Studies on Hélène Metzger'' (1990), pp. 247–269.
Death and legacy
Metgzer became a victim of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
because of her Jewish background. When France was occupied by the Nazis in the 1940s, Metzger initially stayed in Paris before moving to
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
, which was part of the so-called "
free zone", in late 1941.
She refused to go into hiding and was arrested by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
on 8 February 1944. She was then deported from
Drancy
Drancy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris.
History
Toponymy
The name Drancy comes from Medieval Lati ...
to
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
on 7 March 1944, and was murdered either
during travel or upon arrival.
Metzger's work was not always recognised during her lifetime and she never held an academic position, but she is one of the few prewar French historians of science whose work is widely read today.
Because of her early death, her oeuvre is limited in size, but has nonetheless been influential. She published nine books, thirty-six articles and numerous reviews.
Contemporaries such as
Gaston Bachelard
Gaston Bachelard (; ; 27 June 1884 – 16 October 1962) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of ''epistemological obstacle'' and '' epi ...
and
Émile Meyerson
Émile Meyerson (; 12 February 1859 – 2 December 1933) was a Polish-born French epistemologist, chemist, and philosopher of science. Meyerson was born in Lublin, Poland. He died in his sleep of a heart attack at the age of 74.
Biography
Meyerso ...
referred often to her works and also
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term '' paradigm ...
, in the introduction of his book ''
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (1962; second edition 1970; third edition 1996; fourth edition 2012) is a book about the history of science by philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philosophy ...
'' (1962) referred to her as one of his main inspirations.
References
Sources
* , 'Chemistry in the French tradition of philosophy of science: Duhem, Meyerson, Metzger and Bachelard,' ''Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science'', 36, 2005, pp. 627–648.
* , 'Hélène Metzger: The History of Science between the Study of Mentalities and Total History,' ''Studies in History and Philosophy of Science'', 32, 2001, pp. 203–241.
* , ''Writing the History of the Mind - Philosophy and Science in France, 1900 to 1960s'', Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008.
* &
'A Mind of Her Own. Hélène Metzger to Émile Meyerson, 1933' ''Isis'', 94, 2003, pp. 477–491.
* (ed.) ''Études sur / Studies on Hélène Metzger'', Leiden, Brill, 1990.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metzger, Helene
1889 births
1944 deaths
19th-century Jews
19th-century French women
20th-century French philosophers
Jewish philosophers
French Jews who died in the Holocaust
French women philosophers
Historians of science
Philosophers of science
20th-century French women