Editing Pierre Duhem (section)

==Early life and education==

Pierre Duhem was born in Paris on 10 June 1861.  He was the son of Pierre-Joseph Duhem, who was of [[Flemish people|Flemish]] origins, and Marie Alexandrine ''née'' Fabre, whose family hailed from [[Languedoc]].<ref name=":0" />  Pierre-Joseph worked as a sales representative in the textile industry and the family lived in a modest neighborhood on the Rue des Jeûneurs, just south of [[Monmartre]].<ref name=":0" />  The family was devoutly [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and its conservative outlook was influenced by having lived through the [[Paris Commune]] of 1871, which the Duhems saw as a manifestation of the anarchy that must follow from the rejection of religion.<ref name=":0" />

The young Pierre completed his secondary studies at the [[Collège Stanislas de Paris|Collège Stanislas]], where his interest in the physical sciences was encouraged by his teacher Jules Moutier, who was a theoretical physicist and the author of influential textbooks on [[thermodynamics]].<ref name=":0" />  Pierre was admitted as the first-ranked of his cohort at the prestigious [[École normale supérieure]] (ENS) in 1882.<ref name=":0" />  At the ENS, he completed [[Licentiate (degree)|licentiates]] in mathematics and physics in 1884.  He then earned his ''[[agrégation]]'' in physical sciences in 1885.<ref name=":0" />

Duhem prepared a doctoral thesis on the use of the [[thermodynamic potential]] in the theory of [[electrochemical cell]]s.  In his thesis, Duhem explicitly attacked the "[[principle of maximum work]]" as framed by [[Marcellin Berthelot]].  The jury rejected that thesis and Duhem's academic career appears to have been hampered ever after by his differences with Barthelot.<ref name=":0" />  In addition to their scientific disagreements, Duhem was a conservative Catholic and [[Monarchism in France|royalist]], whereas the politically powerful Barthelot was an [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] [[Republican Union (France)|republican]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1888 Duhem finally received his doctorate with a new thesis on the theory of [[magnetization dynamics]].

Despite his accomplishments as a theoretical physicist, and later as a historian and philosopher of science, Duhem never obtained the academic position in Paris that he sought.  He found work first at the [[University of Lille]] (1887–1893), then briefly at the [[University of Rennes]] (1893–1894), and finally as a professor of theoretical physics at the [[University of Bordeaux]], where he was based for the rest of his career.<ref name=":0" />