Rapport des mathématiques et de la physique chez d'Alembert

Michel Paty : The relationship between mathematics and physics in d'Alembert's thought. The problem of the relationship between mathematics and physics — which recurs with every advance in each of the two branches — is here studied in the case of d'Alembert. The article first analyses his own practice in physics and mathematics, in which each contributes to the other's development (a concrete conception of mathematics and a mathematisation of rational physics by abstraction and unity) ; it then examines his theory of the relationship between the two, which is obviously linked to the science of principles, in other words d'Alembert's conception of metaphysics.