Scientific mediation

Energy is a fundamental concept in physics which, since its origins in the 19th century with thermodynamics, has been intimately linked to the observer and the information he has. But this connection conflicts with the Plato’s and Descartes’ dualism of body and mind, which leads us to hope to access, by the mean of reason, to the intrinsic properties of things. This dualism is traditionally opposed by the materialist monism of Aristotle and Epicurus: everything is only matter and our knowledge of the world can only come from its observation. But how then can we justify the use of logic? Unexpectedly, this age-old debate continues uninterrupted to this day. Its chronicle shows us the clash and alternating influence of these two conceptions of the object of science, which have driven its progress.

Science is experiencing disenchantment. It disappoints, it worries, it annoys. Above all, it is misunderstood. But science is like wine, it can be tasted, horizontally and vertically. When tasted, it turns out to be the oldest collective project, which should attract and seduce everyone. But to be appreciated, tasting requires an initiation. We must understand the object of science. We must also understand how it is constructed using concepts that are often arbitrary, conventional and always likely to evolve or be abandoned. We must understand that in science, truths are always provisional and therefore that we can be wrong while having been right to do so. We must be able to distinguish a scientific statement from another that is not. We must know how to appreciate why one theory is better than another…