The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

As other reviewers have written, Henri Poincaré was one of the truly great geniuses that mankind produced. Besides being one of the greatest mathematicians of all time he was also a gifted writer and science popularizer, like Carl Sagan seven decades later. Here we can find something of what Poincaré wrote for the general (albeit educated) public. The texts are one century old and much of the subject matter is outdated, but the essence, what really matters, is still there as valid today as it was when Poincaré put it in words. Great book by a great and deep thinker.

How many books on science and math have you read and said: "I just couldn't put it down. It made me dwell on many of the things that I take for granted and it challenged or even changed some of my views"? I cannot think of many, but this comes immediately to mind as do some of Mr. Gould's books. Although not an elementary or introductory text (from a 21st century perspective) of the scientific method, it is a very eloquent discourse in the pitfalls of its application (or mis-application).

Poincare is one of the best prose writers I have ever read. I highly recommend this book.

In a first reading of "THE VALUE OF SCIENCE", it may look like that Poincaré works' main contribution was to expose the science in XIX. But looking further the surface, you can realize his great influence in the work of important scientists from the last century (i.e. Einstein, Heisenberg and Bohr, for instance). In "THE VALUE OF SCIENCE" and "SCIENCE AND HYPOTHESIS" there are lots of insights about Relativity, Uncertainty Principle, Correspondence Principle, Mathematics Incompleteness, etc. If in one hand we have that Poincaré approached lots of genius questions and his answers are no longer seen as right, on the other hand, as himself have said, some mathematicians let themselves be guided by intuition, making some quick achievements, even insecure ones, as if they are daring knights in the front line. Poincaré is not just the greatest science philosopher of all times ever and an outstanding genius as a mathematician and a mathematical physicist, he was also elected to the Académie Francaise in 1909, what is a proof that reading "THE VALUE OF SCIENCE" is a delighted and funny duty.

Some historical figures are known to all cultured persons. Leo Tolstoy, Johannes Brahms, Vincent Van Gogh -- these are names of which most of us would be embarrassed to be ignorant. On the other hand, few of us would think to add the name of Jules Henri Poincare to this list; and yet, if we did, it would tower over all the rest. For Poincare was a mathematician of the very highest rank, an astonishingly fertile creative genius whose prescient insight and technical mastery utterly transformed the art to which he devoted his life. Among his predecessors in the three-thousand-year history of mathematics, only Archimedes, Newton, Euler, and Gauss can be said to have equalled or exceeded him. By any standard, Poincare was one of the truly great. If for no other reason than this, THE VALUE OF SCIENCE is well worth reading. It is, after all, quite rare to find a book that collects the thoughts of one of the very few genuinely profound intellects in human history. But what makes THE VALUE OF SCIENCE truly wonderful is that it is not merely worth reading: it is, in fact, a joy to read. For in addition to his uncanny mathematical gifts, Poincare had the knack of expressing himself beautifully in writing. Even in translation, his prose has an admirable lucidity and grace, and his aphoristic style often makes him highly quotable. When he speaks of mathematical creation, as he does in a celebrated essay of that name, he offers general readers a fascinating glimpse into the depths of his own extraordinary mind at the peak of its imaginative frenzy; his (scrupulously non-technical) account of one of his greatest mathematical discoveries supplies an unforgettable intellectual thrill, a sort of electric shock for the soul. For anyone interested in the psychology of creation, this is simply irresistible stuff. A final brief caveat: although Poincare was clearly the greatest mathematician of his time, he was not the greatest physicist. A curious wrong-headedness kept him from beating Albert Einstein to the creation of special relativity, and general relativity eventually proved Poincare wrong in some of his opinions on the relation between physics and geometry. So when Poincare speaks of physics, bear in mind that some of his positions no longer seem really tenable. But this is no reason not to read every word of THE VALUE OF SCIENCE. It's a marvelous book, and its author was a marvelous man. Get to know them both. You'll be glad you did.