French Conventionalism

The label French Conventionalism has generally been used to refer to Henri Poincaré and Pierre Duhem, who were seen as having the same view. Current scholarship presents a more complex picture of French philosophy of science in the early twentieth century. There are many conflicting interpretations of both Poincaré and Duhem, but at least we have learned that they do not have the same viewpoint. However, Duhem and Poincaré do share the idea that in some areas of science, we make a choice that is not empirically determinable. We can certainly say that there was an important set of issues being debated in French philosophy of science in the very early twentieth century and that these debates centered on the views of Poincaré and Duhem, no matter what label we use.