Henri Poincaré

During his lifetime, Henri Poincare published three major philosophical books which achieved great success: "La science et l'hypothese" (1902), "La valeur de la science" (1905) and "Science et methode" (1908). After his death in 1913, a fourth volume of his philosophical works was published by his heirs as "Dernieres pensees" (1913). The four books constitute the core of Poincare's philosophic works and were given an ovation by scientific and general public. Around 1919, Gustave Le Bon wrote to Poincare's widow. As the director of the "Bibliotheque de Philosophie Scientifique at Flammarion", he asked her permission to publish a second posthumous volume. "L'Opportunisme scientifique" was intended to be the fifth and final volume of Poincare's philosophical writings. Louis Rougier had elaborated the project, with the collaboration of Gustave Le Bon, and the approval of the philosopher Emile Boutroux and his son Pierre. Because of the reservations of the mathematician's heirs, this book was never published and Dernieres pensees remained his last philosophical book. Nevertheless Poincare's correspondence - which is kept in the Poincare Archives at University Nancy 2 - contains a large amount of documents concerning the project, its justification and the discussions between Louis Rougier and the mathematician's heirs. The aim of this book is to restore this episode, which gives some crucial informations about editorial practices of Poincare and about the posterity of his philosophic thinking.

Lecons sur la theorie mathematique de la lumiere., Theorie mathematique de la lumiere. II, Nouvelles etudes sur la diffraction, theorie de la dispersion de Helmholtz: lecons professees pendant le premier semestre 1891-1892 / par H. Poincare, ...; redigees par M. Lamotte et D. Hurmuzescu, ... http: //gallica.bnf.fr/ark: /12148/bpt6k5462651

Lecons sur la theorie mathematique de la lumiere. 1]: professees pendant le premier semestre 1887-1888 / par H. Poincare...; redigees par J. Blondin, ... Date de l'edition originale: 1889"Collection: Cours de la Faculte des sciences de Paris"Ce livre est la reproduction fidele d'une oeuvre publiee avant 1920 et fait partie d'une collection de livres reimprimes a la demande editee par Hachette Livre, dans le cadre d'un partenariat avec la Bibliotheque nationale de France, offrant l'opportunite d'acceder a des ouvrages anciens et souvent rares issus des fonds patrimoniaux de la BnF. Les oeuvres faisant partie de cette collection ont ete numerisees par la BnF et sont presentes sur Gallica, sa bibliotheque numerique. En entreprenant de redonner vie a ces ouvrages au travers d'une collection de livres reimprimes a la demande, nous leur donnons la possibilite de rencontrer un public elargi et participons a la transmission de connaissances et de savoirs parfois difficilement accessibles. Nous avons cherche a concilier la reproduction fidele d'un livre ancien a partir de sa version numerisee avec le souci d'un confort de lecture optimal. Nous esperons que les ouvrages de cette nouvelle collection vous apporteront entiere satisfaction. Pour plus d'informations, rendez-vous sur www.hachettebnf.fr

by John Stillwell I. General Reaarb , Poincare's papers on Fuchsian and Kleinian I1'OUps are of Il'eat interest from at least two points of view: history, of course, but also as an inspiration for further mathematical proll'ess. The papers are historic as the climax of the ceometric theory of functions initiated by Riemann, and ideal representatives of the unity between analysis, ceometry, topololY and alcebra which prevailed during the 1880's. The rapid mathematical prOll'ess of the 20th century has been made at the expense of unity and historical perspective, and if mathematics is not to disintell'ate altogether, an effort must sometime be made to find its , main threads and weave them tocether 81ain. Poincare's work is an excellent example of this process, and may yet prove to be at the core of a . new synthesis. Certainly, we are now able to gather up , some of the loose ends in Poincare, and a broader synthesis seems to be actually taking place in the work of Thurston. The papers I have selected include the three Il'eat memoirs in the first volumes of Acta Math. -tice, on* Fuchsian groups, Fuchsian , functions, and Kleinian groups (Poincare [1882 a,b,1883]). These are the papers which made his reputation and they include many results and proofs which are now standard. They are preceded by an , unedited memoir written by Poincare in May 1880 at the height of his , creative ferment.