Abstract

This paper proposes to provide a general view of Duhem's epistemological thought, which is now well-known perhaps only for so called Duhem-Quine thesis.
This holistic idea on the 'structure' of the scientific activities is, in Duhem's real work, accompanied by the representationistic idea on the 'aim' of the same activities, and forms with it a total rejection of two dogmatisms, that is, physical realism and empiricism. But although destructive with regard to these dogmatisms, neither holism nor representationism succumbs to skeptic relinquishment. It is the cogency of the scientific history that saves them from stranding in skeptic despair, as well as reinvigorating themselves in dogmatic ambition.