Émile Meyerson

Émile Meyerson (born February 12, 1859 in Lublin , † December 2, 1933 in Paris ) was a chemist, journalist, administrative specialist and philosopher of science .

Life

From 1870 he studied chemistry with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Hermann Kopp in Heidelberg, then in Berlin with Carl Liebermann . At the age of 22 he moved to the Collège de France to complete his chemistry studies. After a short time as director of a textile dye factory, he turned away from chemistry and began studying philosophy.

In Paris in 1888 he became editor of the French news agency "Agence Havas". In 1898 he became active in the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA) and was its Paris director from 1900 to 1923.

He administered Rothschild’s colonies in Palestine and made investigations into the situation of the Jews in Russia between 1898 and 1903. Rather, he dealt with the theory of science and philosophy (logic) on the side, so that the quality of his books and the response of his writings are all the more impressive .

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Influenced in particular by René Descartes , Immanuel Kant , Henri Bergson and Auguste Comte , he described himself as an anti- positivist . After 19 years of study, he published his first book Identity and Reality in 1908 . Its core message is that the content of thought may change, but not the structure of human reason. This is always dominated by the two principles of determinism and causality .

Thomas Kuhn calls Meyerson's writings influential in the development of his ideas, which he wrote down in his main work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" .

Books

• 1908 Identité et réalité. Paris: F. Alcan
• 1921 De l'explication dans les sciences. Paris: Payot
• 1924 La déduction relativiste. Paris: Payot
• 1931 You cheminement de la pensée. Paris: F. Alcan
• 1933 Réel et déterminisme dans la physique quantique. Paris: Hermann
• 1936 essays. Paris: J. Vrin

Web links

• Kenneth A. Bryson:  Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Identity and Reality - archive.org (PDF; 19 MB)