L'invention technique et théorique : la philosophie des sciences de G. Bachelard

Abstract

International audience ; Sciences produce what Bachelard names phenomenotechnic inventions. This permanent inventiveness which makes of the man a "mutant species" is present in the technological and intellectual novation of any scientific projection. Culture and philosophy remain behind, foreign with this inventiveness. We will try in this communication to characterize : 1) the philosophy "bachelardienne" of the "4th state" (that which produces noumenes in the experiment), 2) originality of the proposal (not comtienne, non Cartesian, non Kantian, anti bergsonienne, foreign with analytical philosophy. This philosopher antinaturalist, antirealist, materialist and rationalist in a very particular direction however provide a set of concepts very highly lighting and useful to define the technological and political innovation. Whereas the philosophical community is rather concerned to take as a starting point Simondon, or Social Sciences Studies (of Bruno Latour for example), Bachelard is forgotten whereas it provides a bouquet of stimulative ideas. Through the restitution of his philosophy, one more generally wishes to contribute to give again life at the French School of epistemology, which, from Comte to Foucault, produced a tradition strongly critical, at the same time as favorable to sciences and technophile (contrary to the German School, from Heidegger to Habermas). Concerning the question of imaginary and technical invention and innovation, Bachelard gives us stimulative instruments and something to lean on, particularly in these three works: Le Rationalisme appliqué, 1949, L'Activité rationaliste de la physique contemporaine, 1951, Le Matérialisme rationnel,, 1953. It does not approach the invention from the point of view of lived subjective or creative experiments (Ribot, Bergson) but starting from the objective scientific knowledge, from the experimentation, much richer and full of daring. ; Les sciences produisent ce que Bachelard nomme des inventions phénoménotechni-ques. Cette inventivité permanente qui ...