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2012 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
6. Philosophy and Essays
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Abstract
A number of Henri Poincaré’s essays are usually classified as “philosophical.” Most of them have been collected in six books. The first five books do not mention the provenance of the original papers, which appeared in various periodicals, such as Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, often with mathematical details and references that were left out in the book versions. The omission of sources made the books accessible to a wide public, and there were probably also marketing considerations, since the absence of sources suggested a greater originality of the writings. The last collection, Scientific Opportunism, published in 2002, makes up for this omission by including a list of sources and a description of the background of the five books that appeared in the years up to 1913, which were published by Ernest Flammarion, whose brother Camille was an amateur astronomer and prolific popularizer.