BACHELARD STUDIES - ÉTUDES BACHELARDIENNES - STUDI BACHELARDIANI

The phenomenotechnique of time

2025-04-10T14:14:27+00:00

La phénoménotechnique du temps

2025-04-10T14:15:14+00:00

La fenomenotecnica del tempo

2025-04-10T14:15:57+00:00

Musique quantique et temps ondulant. Pour une théorie ondulatoire de l’alouette

2025-04-10T14:16:29+00:00

As an invisible art, music has a special relationship with time: ephemeral, it actualizes the present and stimulates life that soars, rises and falls like the bird whose songs manifests its “dazzling invisibility”. If it is true that time proceeds by leaps and bounds, leaping over useless durations as Bachelard thought when he placed music under the sign of the lark, it embodies a new reality in the twentieth century, plural and spatio-temporal, revealed by technical devices in this century, which saw the birth of electronic music. By proposing a wave theory of the lark that only the vibrating part of our being can understand, the philosopher suggests the idea of un music that would be both a quanta phenomenon and a special case of phenomenotechnics.

Phénoménotechnique du temps et cosmogonie scientifique

2025-04-10T14:17:01+00:00

The coming together of the two great scientific disciplines of the 20th century, particle physics and cosmology, each of which has developed a robust standard model, has led to the birth of an authentic scientific theory of the beginnings of the universe. Such a theory, based on quantum (micro)physics, can serve as a framework for the theoretical thinking of time in contemporary science. On these premeses, the contribution will argue that the phenomenotechnics of time, based on a reading of Bachelard’s Noumène et microphysique, Georges Lemaître’s book L’hypothèse de l’atome primitif – Essai de cosmogonie and its preface by Ferdinand Gonseth, can provide the methodological framework to meet the challenge of a scientific cosmogony, whose standard model would result from the consolidation of these two standard models.

Science et école chez Bachelard. Discontinuité et nouveauté

2025-04-10T14:17:59+00:00

Starting from the thesis that there is a dialogical conception of thought that runs through all of Bachelard’s work, it will be a question of experimenting to take seriously the centrality of the concept of the school in its epistemology. In this sense, we will try to show: 1) how, in the sciences, the dynamism of a dialogical, polemical reason open to novelty is opposed to a foundationalist strategy of the Cartesian type; 2) how scientific reason is, for Bachelard, absolutely produced by the school; 3) how the school, and the “cogito of mutual obligation” that it activates, are also the structuring determination of the “scientific city”, 4) how the school and the scientific city both have a transcendental function as conditions of possibility of scientific knowledge; 5) how the school, as memory of the past and guarantor of scientific novelty, is the only universal institution capable of overcoming the irreversibility of human time.

It will then be a question of showing that the school presupposes a discontinuous metaphysics of time and, in addition, that the Bachelardian theory of the atom of time as a “pure event”, makes it possible to understand why, and how, novelty is possible, not only in science, but also in life. This means that I would say very little about cosmic, astronomical, physical time. But I would like to say a few words about human time.

Five surprises about the physics of time

2025-04-10T14:18:26+00:00

Over the past centuries, significant advancements have been made in our understanding of time, including its measurement and nature. These advancements have been propelled by conceptual breakthroughs facilitated by technical progress. For the formation of their scientific mind, physicists must transcend their initial preconceptions about time and are led to retrace the historical milestones to rediscover the concept of time at various levels of intricacy. Drawing inspiration from my own journey as a student and researcher, this article will explore five pivotal moments that were intellectual surprises and shaped my subsequent pursuit of comprehending time.

Effets temporels dans les théories relativistes

2025-04-10T14:18:52+00:00

This article focuses on relativistic time effects (RTEs), which are phenomena measurable by clocks, surpassing the predictions of Newtonian physics while being consistent with relativity. REEs, which include shifts and delays, are classified according to their kinematic or gravitational origin, with significant implications for astrophysics, cosmology and practical applications such as GPS. The text explores the fundamental conceptual differences between Newtonian perception and relative space-time realities, highlighting the nature of proper duration, measurable only within the framework of a particular history. Emblematic experiments, such as the Hafele-Keating and Pound-Rebka experiments, illustrate how time shifts can be observed and quantified, confirming the predictions of relativistic theories. The article concludes by inviting deeper reflection on the concept of “time”, suggesting that traditional models can be overcome in the modern understanding of cosmic and physical phenomena. The conclusion calls for a philosophical reassessment of the notion of time in the light of relativistic discoveries.

La réalisation des références spatio-temporelles

2025-04-10T14:19:20+00:00

In this article, we show how the two major revolutions of theoretical physics in the 20th century – quantum physics and general relativity – have shaped our modern spatio-temporal reference systems and their realizations. On the one hand, the development of quantum physics enabled the invention of atomic clocks and the linking of the second, the unit of physical time, to a physical quantity postulated as universal: a transition frequency of the Caesium atom. On the other hand, general relativity allowed for the development of the conceptual framework in which the durations measured by a set of clocks are related to a global coordinate time, whose realization permits the establishment of international time scales. We will also show how the construction and materialization of spatio-temporal references can fit into a Bachelardian interpretation through the concept of phenomenotechnique. The connection between clock measurements and international time scales depends on a geometric model of space-time. In order to establish agreement on international time scales, international organizations have defined conventional geometric models of space-time, which implicitly define the conventional spatio-temporal reference frames. These organizations are the Union Astronomique Internationale (UAI) and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM).

Thus, the conceptual framework of spatio-temporal reference frames, developed from physical theories, is materialized by a set of time or frequency measurements according to well-documented experimental protocols and international conventions. The agreement between these measurements and the predictions of measurements calculated within the conceptual framework tells us that our conceptual framework is a “good” description of reality. The study of this agreement is the subject of metrology. However, it often that our measurements do not correspond to the predictions, which gives metrology a heuristic power, and can lead to the discovery of a new physical law, or a better description of our measurement instruments and experimental procedures, or even challenge the conceptual framework and its underlying physical theory. We will describe two examples of this heuristic metrological approach: the historical experiment of the astronomers’ pendulum, and its modern counterpart with atomic clocks.

happens

Temps universel ou temps international ?

2025-04-10T14:19:54+00:00

The Bureau International des poids et mesures (BIPM) is an international organization which role is to facilitate the standardization of measurements. In particular, the Time Department of the BIPM is responsible for the calculation and the publication of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and of its rapid solution called UTCr. UTC is calculated with optimized algorithms using atomic clocks data compared by time links. UTC is the world time reference and can be considered an “Universal” and an “International” time scale. UTC is also used in multiple applications spread from the telecommunication, transports, Earth and space sciences need precise timing for observation, research, and modelling.

De la phénoménotechnique à l’idéologie matérialisée : pourquoi la science fabrique-t-elle le monde ?

2025-04-10T14:20:18+00:00

This article takes into consideration the theses of Gaston Bachelard presented in Le nouvel esprit scientifique (1934) and La philosophie du non (1940) to address the question: why does science construct the world? Taking seriously the concept of a science réalisante (“realizing science”), it seeks to reassess this idea in light of the challenges of the 21st century. Science and technology emerge as the primary sources of our material environment, a phenomenon that can be interpreted through Marxian approaches developed in the second half of the 20th century. The analysis focuses on a critique of Bachelard’s concept of phénoménotechnique, putting it into dialogue with the notions of materialized ideology, developed by Guy Debord in the 1960s, and real abstractions, central to the critique of value-dissociation. While a connection between Bachelard and Debord has been previously suggested concerning La poétique de l’espace and the Situationist practice of the dérive, this study shifts its focus to phénoménotechnique. Drawing on my research experience in the field of frequency metrology and atomic clocks, this article offers a perspective that links scientific practice with the broader historical and social context of modernity. By employing Debordian and Marxian concepts, the study aims to explore the contemporary relevance of phénoménotechnique and its potential for understanding the active role of science in shaping the material world.

Bibliographie générale : La phénoménotechnique du temps

2025-04-10T14:20:49+00:00

Boson et vérité : donner du sens à la recherche, à l’attention de l’Association internationale Gaston Bachelard

2025-04-10T14:21:13+00:00

Dans le roman Mon couronnement de Véronique Bizot, le narrateur, âgé de 87 ans, voit sa vie bouleversée par des visiteurs inattendus venus le féliciter pour une découverte scientifique oubliée. Initialement considérée comme une impasse, cette découverte offre désormais de nouvelles perspectives sur un problème développé en parallèle par Brout et Englert. Invité à son «couronnement», le protagoniste choisit finalement de ne pas y participer. Le roman explore trois motivations principales de la recherche scientifique : l’appétit de gloire, l’application sociétale et la quête de la vérité. Ces thèmes résonnent avec l’histoire de la découverte du boson de Higgs. Peter Higgs, célébré à 84 ans en 2013, fit une percée théorique en 1964 sur l’origine de la masse des particules subatomiques, développée avec Brout et Englert. Ce mécanisme explique pourquoi certaines particules ont une masse. Le Modèle standard de la physique décrit la matière comme composée de quarks, d’électrons et de neutrinos, interagissant par quatre forces fondamentales : la gravité, la force électromagnétique, la force nucléaire forte et la force nucléaire faible. Chaque force est associée à un boson spécifique. Le mécanisme de Higgs introduit le boson de Higgs, essentiel pour expliquer la masse des particules. Higgs et ses collègues cherchaient la vérité scientifique, non des applications immédiates. Des décennies plus tard, l’existence du boson de Higgs fut confirmée expérimentalement par le LHC du CERN en 2012, validant la prédiction théorique et valant à Higgs et Englert le prix Nobel de physique en 2013. La recherche fondamentale, motivée par la quête de la vérité, progresse grâce à la validation par les pairs et à des expériences rigoureuses. La découverte du boson de Higgs souligne l’importance de la persévérance, de la collaboration internationale et de la méthode scientifique dans l’avancement des connaissances humaines.

Le problème du temps. Essai sur la méthodologie de la recherche. Neuchâtel, Editions du Griffon, 1964

2025-04-10T14:21:40+00:00

Nice, 10 novembre 2023, Retranscription de l’entretien avec Noël Dimarcq

2025-04-10T14:22:05+00:00

Équation du Temps (2019-2021)

2025-04-10T14:22:26+00:00