Pierre Duhem

Oggi è l'anniversario della morte di Pierre Duhem. Segue un estratto dalla sua biografia scritta da Stanley Jaki.


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Obviously, Duhem did not long for a fashionable and easy Christian faith and life. His life had too many trials to let him entertain illusions, especially their spiritual kinds. At the center of his religious life stood the cross of Christ. A proof of this is his obvious identification with two crosses in the outskirts of Cabrespine, the subject of two exquisite drawings of his. Ultimately, they are the most genuine context for putting Duhem on the scene of his life and work.

One of the crosses, the Croix d'Estresse (the cross of distress), he drew on September 4, 1912. His drawing of it has its own value for students of the history of art, as the cross is a rare example of crosses with a Pietà carved on their reverse side. The cross, erected in 1632, has since attracted many pilgrims. They still keep going to the place where it stood until about six years ago when it mysteriously disappeared while a new road was constructed to the property acquired by some from abroad. (Perhaps through this reference the Department of Aude will take note and appropriate action). Let it be hoped that Duhem's drawing of that cross will not become its sole detailed evidence and a painful reminder of widespread illegal trafficking in art objects in the region. In any case, the drawing by Duhem remains a lasting evidence of his spontaneous recourse to the Virgin invoked as the mother of all afflicted. It should not be difficult to evoke Duhem's sentiments as he drew the figure which in a kneeling position under the Pietà raises his hands in supplicant prayer towards the One of whom it was never heard that anyone turning to Her would have had his prayers unanswered.

The other cross, erected in 1638, a plain one in the midst of the communal field, Duhem drew on August 21, 1916, less than a month before his death. He made that simple cross speak by emphasizing its size. He did so by letting it be seen from an angle whereby it appears equal in height to the mountain behind and thus dominates the field. A purely artistic technique, but hardly in the case of Duhem who never pretended to show what he was not convinced about. He let his whole life be dominated by the cross, the very act that alone makes a Christian for whom "every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is deposited in Christ" (Col.2:3). It was through identification with Christ that Duhem's vast knowledge of science, including its philosophical and historical dimensions, took on a prophetic character.

[S. L. Jaki, Scientist and Catholic: Pierre Duhem 109-10]

Commemorazione di padre Stanley Jaki

Un secondo evento per celebrare i dieci anni dalla morte di Stanley Jaki è stato organizzato da padre Paul Haffner, Presidente della Stanley Jaki Foundation, a Rome il 15 marzo.

L’eredità di padre Stanley L. Jaki, a dieci anni della sua scomparsa

L’eredità di padre Stanley L. Jaki, a dieci anni della sua scomparsa
The legacy of Fr. Stanley L. Jaki, ten years after his death

Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum
Via degli Aldobrandeschi 190 – Roma

4-5 aprile 2019 / April 4-5, 2019

Bozza di programma / Program draft

Giovedì 4 aprile / Thurday, April 4
09:00 Saluto del Rettore / Rector’s greetings, P. Jesús Villagrasa, LC
09:15 Introduzione ai lavori / Introduction, P. Rafael Pascual, LC
09:30 I limiti di una scienza senza limiti / The limits of a limitless science, Antonio Colombo
10:15 A survey of Road to Science / Un’indagine sulla Strada della Scienza, Neal A. Doran
11:00 Pausa caffè / Coffee break
11:30 Anthropological Foundations of Bioethics, / I fondamenti antropologici della bioetica, Lucía Guerra Menéndez
12:15 El drama de Guadalupe / The drama of Guadalupe, Raquel Guerra
13:00 Pausa pranzo / Lunch break [Saletta professori / Faculty lounge]
15:30 La concezione epistemologica dei miracoli nel pensiero di p. Jaki / The epistemological conception of miracles in the thought of Fr. Jaki, Hrvoje Relja
16:15 Jaki e il giovane Kant / Jaki and Young Kant, Riccardo Pozzo
17:00 Pausa caffè / Coffee break
17:30 Stanley Jaki and Medieval Islamic Cosmology / Stanley Jaki e la cosmologia islamica medievale, Alessandro Giostra
18:15 La matrice cristiana delle rivoluzioni scientifiche / The Christian matrix of scientific revolutions, Costantino Sigismondi
19:00 Tavola rotonda conclusiva della giornata / Round table at the end of the day

Venerdì 5 aprile
09:00 “Quello che Dio ha separato”. Il modello del rapporto scienza-fede nel pensiero di padre Jaki / “What God separated”. The model of science-faith relation in the thought of Fr. Jaki, P. Rafael Pascual, LC
09:30 Fr Jaki and Converts to the Church / P. Jaki e i convertiti al cattolicesimo, John Beaumont
10:15 Eternal Returns in Father Jaki’s work / Gli ‘eterni ritorni’ nell’opera di Padre Jaki, Jacques Vauthier
11:00 Pausa caffè / Coffee break
11:30 La creazione e la singolarità cosmologica / Creation and the cosmological singularity, Fernando di Mieri
12:15 Recent Gravitational Waves data favor a single finite Universe as required in Fr. Jaki´s books / Le onde gravitazionali a favore di un singolo universo finito, come sosteneva P. Jaki Julio Gonzalo
13:00 Pranzo conclusivo / Concluding lunch

Offerte di intervento / Further possible interventions:

Paolo Musso Da definire / TBD (in collegamento / video conference)
Peter Floriani Intervento scritto su / Written contribution about The Relevance of Jaki,
da inserire possibilmente negli Atti / to eventually be inserted in the Acts