Gaston Bachelard

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Gaston Bachelard
philosophy of art, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, literary theory, education
Notable ideas
Epistemological break, the poetics of space, rational materialism, technoscience
(techno-science)[4][5]
Signature

Gaston Bachelard (

philosopher.[11] He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of epistemological obstacle and epistemological break (obstacle épistémologique and rupture épistémologique). He influenced many subsequent French philosophers, among them Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Dominique Lecourt and Jacques Derrida, as well as the sociologists Pierre Bourdieu and Bruno Latour.[12]

For Bachelard, the scientific object should be constructed and therefore different from the positivist sciences; in other words, information is in continuous construction. Empiricism and rationalism are not regarded as dualism or opposition but complementary, therefore studies of a priori and a posteriori, or in other words reason and dialectic, are part of scientific research.[13]

Life and work

Facade painted in homage to Gaston Bachelard, in Bar-sur-Aube, his birthplace

Bachelard was a

doctorat ès lettres) in 1927, he wrote two theses: the main one, Essai sur la connaissance approchée, under the direction of Abel Rey, and the complementary one, Étude sur l'évolution d'un problème de physique: la propagation thermique dans les solides, supervised by Léon Brunschvicg
.

He first taught from 1902 to 1903 at the college of

radioactivity, quantum and wave mechanics, relativity, electromagnetism and wireless telegraphy).[14]

He was a professor at the University of Dijon from 1930 to 1940 and then was appointed chair in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris. In 1958, he became a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.[15]

Bachelard's psychology of science

Bachelard's studies of the history and philosophy of science in such works as Le nouvel esprit scientifique ("The New Scientific Spirit", 1934) and La formation de l'esprit scientifique ("The Formation of the Scientific Mind", 1938) were based on his vision of historical epistemology as a kind of psychoanalysis of the scientific mind.

In the English-speaking world, the connection Bachelard made between psychology and the history of science has been little understood.[citation needed] Bachelard demonstrated how the progress of science could be blocked by certain types of mental patterns, creating the concept of obstacle épistémologique ("epistemological obstacle"). One task of epistemology is to make clear the mental patterns at use in science, in order to help scientists overcome the obstacles to knowledge. Another goal is to “give back to human reason its function of agitation and aggressiveness” as Bachelard put it in ‘L'engagement rationaliste’ (1972).[16]

Epistemological breaks: the discontinuity of scientific progress

Bachelard was critical of

history of sciences. Thus models that framed scientific development as continuous, such as that of Comte and Émile Meyerson
, seemed simplistic and erroneous to Bachelard.

Through his concept of "epistemological break", Bachelard underlined the discontinuity at work in the history of sciences. However the term "epistemological break" itself is almost never used by Bachelard but became famous through Louis Althusser.

He showed that new theories integrated old theories in new

mass, used by Newton and Einstein in two different senses). Thus, non-Euclidean geometry did not contradict Euclidean geometry
, but integrated it into a larger framework.

Teacher and philosopher

Discharged in March 1919 and unemployed, Bachelard searched and obtained a job in October as a professor of physics and chemistry at the college of Bar-sur-Aube. His wife, Jeanne Rossi, a schoolteacher he had married in 1914, was transferred to Voigny. His daughter Suzanne was born on 18 October. He travelled the six kilometers to Bar-sur-Aube on foot every day, was provided a very useful education, and enrolled for a philosophy degree. Jeanne died in June 1920, and Bachelard raised his daughter alone.[17] At the age of thirty-six he began a completely unexpected philosophical career. Starting decisively in 1922, he acquired the title of Doctor of Letters at the Sorbonne in 1927. His theses, supported by Abel Rey and Léon Brunschvicg, were published.[18] He became a lecturer at the Faculty of Letters of Dijon from October 1927, but remained at the college of Bar-sur-Aube until 1930. He even participated in the municipal elections of 1929 to defend the project of a college for all.[19] He nevertheless accepted a professorship at the University of Burgundy when his daughter Suzanne entered the second degree.

He did the same when he was appointed to the Sorbonne as a university professor and director of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology in 1940, accompanying his daughter in her higher educations.[20]

On 25 August 1937 he was made a Knight of the

Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHST), which in 1992 became IHPST.[21][12]

The role of epistemology in science

The building in rue de la Xavée in Remiremont, where Bachelard lived from 1903 to 1905

Bachelard was a

Cartesian sense, although he recommended his "non-Cartesian epistemology" as a replacement for the more standard Cartesian epistemology.[22] He compared "scientific knowledge" to ordinary knowledge in the way we deal with it, and saw error as only illusion: "Scientifically, one thinks truth as the historical rectification of a persistent error, and experiments as correctives for an initial, common illusion (illusion première)."[23]

The role of

pedagogical activity. This explains why "The electric bulb is an object of scientific thought… an example of an abstract-concrete object."[24] To understand the way it works, one has to take the detour of scientific knowledge. Epistemology is thus not a general philosophy that aims at justifying scientific reasoning. Instead, it produces regional histories of science
.

Shifts in scientific perspective

Bachelard never saw how seemingly irrational theories often simply represented a drastic shift in scientific perspective. For instance, he never claimed that the

Lord Kelvin found this theory irrational).[25]

One of his main theses in The New Scientific Mind was that modern sciences had replaced the classical

theories of knowledge
).

In non-Cartesian epistemology, there is no "simple substance" as in

constructivist epistemology
.

Other academic interests

In addition to epistemology, Bachelard's work deals with many other topics, including poetry, dreams, psychoanalysis, and the imagination. The Psychoanalysis of Fire (1938) and The Poetics of Space (1958) are among the most popular of his works: Jean-Paul Sartre cites the former and Bachelard's Water and Dreams in his Being and Nothingness (1943), and the latter had a wide reception in architectural theory circles, and continues to be influential in literary theory and creative writing. In philosophy, this nocturnal side of his work is developed by his student Gilbert Durand.

Philosopher and citizen

Feminist philosopher

It should be noted, in his singular career, the concern which he had to ensure the development of his daughter, so much the time was marked by the cleavage of the sexes and the functions.

epistemological research of high standing.[27]

Bibliography

His works include:

English translations

Though most of Bachelard's major works on poetics have been translated into English, only about half of his works on the philosophy of science have been translated.

  • The Philosophy of No: A Philosophy of the New Scientific Mind. Orion Press, New York, 1968. Translation by G.C. Waterston. (La philosophie du non)
  • The New Scientific Spirit. Beacon Press, Boston, 1985. Translation by A. Goldhammer. (Le nouvel esprit scientifique)
  • Dialectic of Duration. Clinamen, Bolton, 2000. Translation by M. McAllester Jones. (La dialectique de la durée)
  • The Formation of the Scientific Mind. Clinamen, Bolton, 2002. Translation by M. McAllester Jones. (La formation de l'esprit scientifique)
  • Intuition of the Instant. Northwestern University Press, 2013. Translation by Eileen Rizo-Patron (L'intuition de l'instant)
  • Atomistic Intuitions. State University of New York Press, 2018. Translation by Roch C. Smith (Intuitions atomistiques)

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0826498302
  2. ISBN 978-0230201538
  3. ^ Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1998): "Bachelard, Gaston (1884-1962)".
  4. ^ A term for the combination of technology and science as disciplines coined in 1953 by Bachelard; see: Bachelard, Gaston (1953) La materialisme rationel. Paris: PUF
  5. ISBN 0810116065
  6. ISBN 9781136453885
  7. ISBN 978-3764361662
  8. ISBN 9781438466057
  9. ^ Dosse, François (2014). Castoriadis. Une vie. Paris: La Découverte. pp. 43–4.
  10. ^ Serres, M. (1970) "La réforme et les sept péchés," L'Arc, 42, Bachelard special issue.
  11. ISBN 0-415-06043-5
    .
  12. ^ a b Simons, Massimiliano; Rutgeerts, Jonas; Masschelein, Anneleen and Cortois, Paul (2019). "Gaston Bachelard and Contemporary Philosophy" (PDF). Parrhesia. 31: 1–16.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. doi:10.5007/2178-4582.2011v45n2p393
    .
  14. ^ Gaston Bachelard. babelio.com
  15. ^ Alain, Dierkens (1987) Index biographique des membres, correspondants et associés de 1769 à 1984. Académie Royale de Belgique. p. 19.
  16. ^ Grange, Juliette (2015). "L'invention technique et théorique : la philosophie des sciences de G. Bachelard". HAL-SHS- Archives ouvertes. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  17. ^ Jean-Michel Wavelet, Gaston Bachelard, l'inattendu, op. cit., p. 120 et Daniel Giroux, Gaston Bachelard, travailleur solitaire, op. cit., p. 55.
  18. ^ Étude sur l'évolution d'un problème de physique : la propagation thermique dans les solides
  19. JSTOR 2106717
    .
  20. ISBN 9781136453885
  21. ISBN 9780415250696
    .
  22. ^ The New Scientific Mind, conclusion.
  23. ^ The New Scientific Mind, VI, 6.
  24. ^ in Le Rationalisme appliqué (1949, 2nd ed. of 1962, p. 104ff).
  25. ^ The New Scientific Mind, V (p. 120 French ed., 1934).
  26. OCLC 1127647176.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  27. ^ Gaston Bachelard: biography, activities, main ideas. public-welfare.com

Sources

  • Dominique Lecourt, L’épistémologie historique de Gaston Bachelard (1969). Vrin, Paris, 11e édition augmentée, 2002.
  • Dominique Lecourt, Pour une critique de l’épistémologie : Bachelard, Canguilhem, Foucault (1972, réed. Maspero, Paris, 5e éd. 1980).
  • D. Lecourt, Marxism and Epistemology: Bachelard, Canguilhem and Foucault, New Left Books, London (1975).
  • Dominique Lecourt, Bachelard, Epistémologie, textes choisis (1971). PUF, Paris, 6e édition, 1996.
  • Dominique Lecourt, Bachelard, le jour et la nuit, Grasset, Paris, 1974.
  • Didier Gil, Bachelard et la culture scientifique, Presses Universitaires de France, 1993.
  • Didier Gil, Autour de Bachelard – esprit et matière, un siècle français de philosophie des sciences (1867–1962), Les Belles Lettres, Encre marine, 2010.
  • Hommage à Gaston Bachelard. Etudes de philosophie et d'histoire des sciences, by C. Bouligand, G. Canguilhem, P. Costabel, F. Courtes, François Dagognet, M. Daumas, Gilles Granger, J. Hyppolite, R. Martin, R. Poirier and R. Taton
  • Actes du Colloque sur Bachelard de 1970 (
    Colloque de Cerisy
    ).
  • L'imaginaire du concept: Bachelard, une épistémologie de la pureté by Françoise Gaillard, MLN, Vol. 101, No. 4, French Issue (Sep 1986), pp. 895–911.
  • Gaston Bachelard ou le rêve des origines, by Jean-Luc Pouliquen, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2007.

Further reading

External links

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