J.T. Blackmore

Ernst Mach -- A Deeper Look has been written to reveal to English-speaking readers the recent revival of interest in Ernst Mach in Europe and Japan. The book is a storehouse of new information on Mach as a philosopher, historian, scientist and person, containing a number of biographical and philosophical manuscripts publihsed for the first time, along with correspondence and other matters published for the first time in English. The book also provides English translations of Mach's controversies with leading physicists and psychologists, such as Max Planck and Carl Stumpf, and offers basic evidence for resolving Mach's position on atomism and Einstein's theory of relativity. Mach's scientific, philosophical and personal influence in a number of countries -- Austria, Germany, Bohemia and Yugoslavia among them -- has been carefully explored and many aspects detailed for the first time. All of the articles are eminently readable, especially those written by Mach's sister. They are deeply researched, new interpretations abound, and the bibliography includes recent works by and about Mach from over a dozen countries. The book also contains many articles by or about Mach's contemporaries, including Ostwald, Dingler, Weichert and, especially, Einstein. Finally, and most intriguingly, the original ideas of Japanese scholars are presented, built on Mach's philosophy. These demonstrate how Mach's world view is currently contributing to the solution of contemporary philosophical problems.

Documents and New Perspectives

Ernst Mach — A Deeper Look

2 But already he had done important work on thermal equilibrium which helped generalize Maxwell's distribution law. Indeed, there is part of a letter by James Clerk Maxwell to Loschmidt from this period which runs: "I am very pleased over the outstanding work of your student; in England experi mental physics is much neglected. Sir William Thomson has done the most in this connection, but you [in Austria] are ahead of us with your good example. "2 But while praise was fine, Boltzmann lusted after further travel. He wanted to know what other physicists were doing first hand. In 1870 he attended lectures by Bunsen and Konigsberger in Heid elberg, and in the same year went to Berlin only to scurry back to Vienna with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, but Boltzmann was back in Berlin the next year attending lectures, visiting laboratories, and working on dielectricity more or less under the direction of Kirchhhoff and Helmholtz.

Book One: A Documentary History

Ludwig Boltzmann His Later Life and Philosophy, 1900–1906

Satoru Tanaka

R. Itagaki

S. Tanaka

This work gives insight into the philosophical influence Ernst Mach (1838-1916) has had on leading Viennese physicists and philosophers of his time by relating the ideas and works of these men to Mach's phenomenalism. The relation between Mach and the University of Vienna Philosophical Society is also examined. In the process little-known documents and correspondence from Mach are presented. Additionally, this extensive research helps clarify the conflict between Mach and most physicists over the reality of atoms and places the claim of Mach and his followers to represent science and philosophy of science against the claim of Planck and Einstein that phenomenalism and positivism were not even compatible with science. Audience: This is an ideal book for both graduate students and scholars in the field of history and philosophy of science.

J.T. Blackmore

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