Poincaré’s philosophy: from conventionalism to phenomenology. (English) Zbl 1097.00005

Zahar, Elie

Chicago, IL: Open Court (ISBN 0-8126-9435-X/pbk). viii, 264 p. (2001).

Poincaré was a great scientist and a great philosopher at the same time. Yet his philosophical writings sometimes seems to lack unity. In this outstanding book Elie Zahar gives a rational reconstruction of Poincaré’s philosophical position. Poincaré turns out to be a structural realist with empiricist inclinations whose conventionalism is basically the adherence to a principle of the mathematical coherence of a theory. The book contains thorough discussions of Poincaré’s philosophy of geometry, his relativity programme and his views on the foundations of mathematics. The book is more than a historical study. Zahar also discusses Poincaré’s position in relation with modern debates, for example those concerning Hartry Field’s argument on the dispensability of mathematics.

Reviewer: Teun Koetsier (Amsterdam)

MSC:

00A30	Philosophy of mathematics
03A05	Philosophical and critical aspects of logic and foundations
01-02	Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to history and biography
03-02	Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to mathematical logic and foundations
01A55	History of mathematics in the 19th century
01A60	History of mathematics in the 20th century

Keywords:

Poincaré; conventionalism