Here is Poincaré's famous discussion of creative psychology as it is revealed in the physical sciences. Explaining how such basic concepts as number and magnitude, space and force were developed, the great French mathematician refutes the skeptical position that modern scientific method and its results are wholly factitious. The places of rigorous logic and intuitive leaps are both established by an analysis of contrasting methods of idea-creation in individuals and in modern scientific traditions. The nature of hypothesis and the role of probability are investigated with all of Poincaré's usual fertility of insight.Partial contents: On the nature of mathematical reasoning. Magnitude and experiment. Space: non-Euclidean geometrics, space and geometry, experiment and geometry. Force: classical mechanics, relative and absolute motion, energy and thermodynamics. Nature: hypotheses in physics, the theories of modern physics, the calculus of probabilities, optics and electricity, electro-dynamics."Poincaré's was the last man to take practically all mathematics, both pure and applied as his province. Few mathematicians have had the breadth of philosophic vision that Poincaré's had, and none is his superior in the gift of clear exposition." ? Men of Mathematics, Eric Temple Bell, Professor of Mathematics, University of Cambridge

TRANSLATOR'S NOTEINTRODUCTIONAUTHOR'S PREFACEPART I. NUMBER AND MAGNITUDE. CHAPTER I. ON THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICAL REASONING CHAPTER II. MATHEMATICAL MAGNITUDE AND EXPERIMENTPART II. SPACE. CHAPTER III. NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRIES CHAPTER IV. SPACE AND GEOMETRY CHAPTER V. EXPERIMENT AND GEOMETRYPART III. FORCE. CHAPTER VI. THE CLASSICAL MECHANICS CHAPTER VII. RELATIAVE AND ABSOLUTE MOTION CHAPTER VIII. ENERGY AND THERMO-DYNAMICSPART IV. NATURE. CHAPTER IX. HYPOTHESES IN PHYSICS CHAPTER X. THE THEORIES OF MODERN PHYSICS CHAPTER XI. THE CALCULUS OF PROBABILITIES CHAPTER XII. OPTICS AND ELECTRICITY CHAPTER XIII. ELECTRO-DYNAMICS