Émile Meyerson

Émile Meyerson ( born February 12, 1859 in Lublin, † December 2, 1933 in Paris) was a chemist, journalist, management expert 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 Textilfärbefabrik he turned on the chemistry and began to study philosophy.

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

He managed Rothschilds colonies in Palestine and made studies on the situation of the Jews in Russia 1898-1903. Rather incidentally, he dealt with science theory and philosophy ( logic), so that the quality of his books and the resonance of his writings impress the more.

Work

Influenced in particular by Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Auguste Comte Henri Bergson and he described himself as an anti- positivist. After 19 years of study he published in 1908 his first book, identity and reality. His 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 called Meyerson's writings as influential in the development of his ideas, which he called " The Structure of Scientific Revolutions " wrote in his major work.