Émile Meyerson (; 12 February 1859 – 2 December 1933) was a Polish-born French epistemologist, chemist, and

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 ...

. Meyerson was born in Lublin,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. He died in his sleep of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at the age of 74.

Biography

Meyerson was educated at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

and studied chemistry under

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Buns ...

. In 1882 Meyerson settled in Paris. He served as foreign editor of the

Havas news agency Havas SA is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, headquartered in Paris, France. It operates in more than 100 countries and is one of the largest advertising and communications groups in the world. Havas consists of ...

, and later as the director of the

Jewish Colonization Association The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA, Yiddish ייִק"אַ), in America spelled Jewish Colonization Association, is an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigratio ...

for

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. He became a naturalized French citizen after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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 ...

cites Meyerson's work as influential while developing the ideas for his main work ''

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 ...

''. In ''La Déduction relativiste'', Meyerson expressed the view that

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

general theory of relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric scientific theory, theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current descr ...

was a new version of the identification of matter with space, which he considered "the postulate upon which the whole (Cartesian) system rests."Quoted in

Arthur O. Lovejoy Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an American philosophy, philosopher and intellectual history, intellectual historian, who founded the discipline known as the history of ideas with his book ''The Great Chain ...

, ''The Revolt against Dualism: An Inquiry Concerning the Existence of Ideas'' (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996), p. 5; Lovejoy's translation rig. publ. 1930

Works

* ''Identité et réalité'' (1908) * ''De l'explication dans les sciences'', 2 vols. (1921) * ''La déduction relativiste'' (1925) * ''Du cheminement de la pensée'', 3 vols. (1931) * ''Réel et déterminisme dans la physique quantique'' (1933) * ''Essais'' (1936)

Notes

External links

*Miguel Espinoza
"Meyerson, Physics and the Intelligibility of Nature"
1859 births 1933 deaths 19th-century French chemists Epistemologists Philosophers of science 20th-century French philosophers Polish emigrants to France French Zionists 19th-century Polish Jews Jewish philosophers French male writers {{france-philosopher-stub

Biography

Works

See also

Notes

External links