Beyond disciplinary frontiers: The value of the history of science in teaching.

"The legitimate, safe, fruitful method, capable of preparing a mind to accept a physical hypothesis is the historical one", argued the French theoretical physicist Pierre Duhem (1861-1916), in La théorie physique: son objet et sa structure (1906). Starting from this position of thought, with this contribution we want to broaden our gaze to try to briefly outline an "overall conception" of the history of science, in the light of its possible declinations and its epistemological implications, beyond the disciplinary frontiers , to foster a true education of the mind or, better, to understand, according to the French style, the formative value of a philosophical history of science in teaching.