Common Frontiers of the Exact Sciences and the Humanities

Physics in Perspective

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 6-29

  Hiebert, Erwin N ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Atom; Causality; Chance; Exact sciences; Franz S. Exner; Hermann Helmholtz; Laws of nature; Mechanics; Oswald spengler; Probability; Reduction; The humanities; Truth; William S. Jevons

Indexed keywords

EID: 0347933168     PISSN: 14226944     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s000160050034     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. For a balanced historical perspective on the creative ways and heterogeneous contexts in which the invention of the physical sciences was realized, see Mary Jo Nye, Joan Richards, and Roger H. Stuewer, ed., The Intention of Physical Science: Intersection of Mathematics, Theology and Natural Philosophy since the Seventeenth Century (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1992).
2. For an analysis of attempts to cast the study of thermal phenomena in the form of mechanics, and arguments that support reduction without reductionism, see Erwin N. Hiebert, "The Reduction of Thermodynamics to Mechanics - Historical-Philosophical Problem," Memorial Symposium for Lorenz Krüger (Berlin: Max-PIanck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 1996). Preprint 38, pp. 43-60.
3. Paul Dirac, "Quantum mechanics of many-electron systems," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London [A] 123 (1929) 713.
4. Hermann Helmholtz, Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik (Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1863).
5. Erwin and Elfrieda Hiebert, "Musical Thought and Practice: Links to Helmholtz's Tonempfindungen," in Lorenz Krüger, ed., Universalgenie Helmholtz. Rückblick nach 100 Jahren (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1994), pp. 295-311.
6. A concise and clear analysis on this aspect of Jevons's ideas is given by Margaret Schabas in "The Worldly Philosophy of William Stanley Jevons," Victorian Studies 28 (1984), 129-147. For an analysis of Jevons's career and contributions to logic, mathematics, and economics see also M. Schabas, A World Ruled by Numbers: William Stanley Jevons and the Rise of Mathematical Economics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
7. A concise and clear analysis on this aspect of Jevons's ideas is given by Margaret Schabas in "The Worldly Philosophy of William Stanley Jevons," Victorian Studies 28 (1984), 129-147. For an analysis of Jevons's career and contributions to logic, mathematics, and economics see also M. Schabas, A World Ruled by Numbers: William Stanley Jevons and the Rise of Mathematical Economics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
8. These matters and others that are closely related have recently been subjected to timely and critical historical analyses that impinge on the relationship between the natural and the social sciences: Philip Morowski, More Heat Than Light. Economics as Social Physics: Physics as Nature's Economics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); I. Bernard Cohen, ed., The Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences: Some Critical and Historical Perspectives (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1994); Philip Morowski, Natural Images in Economic Thought: "Markets Red in Tooth and Claw" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
9. These matters and others that are closely related have recently been subjected to timely and critical historical analyses that impinge on the relationship between the natural and the social sciences: Philip Morowski, More Heat Than Light. Economics as Social Physics: Physics as Nature's Economics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); I. Bernard Cohen, ed., The Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences: Some Critical and Historical Perspectives (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1994); Philip Morowski, Natural Images in Economic Thought: "Markets Red in Tooth and Claw" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
10. These matters and others that are closely related have recently been subjected to timely and critical historical analyses that impinge on the relationship between the natural and the social sciences: Philip Morowski, More Heat Than Light. Economics as Social Physics: Physics as Nature's Economics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); I. Bernard Cohen, ed., The Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences: Some Critical and Historical Perspectives (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1994); Philip Morowski, Natural Images in Economic Thought: "Markets Red in Tooth and Claw" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
11. A. Diemer, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, ed. Joachim Ritter, 3 (Basel and Stuttgart: Schwabe & Co. Verlag, 1974), 211, 215. See also Erich Rothacker, Logik und Systematik der Geisteswissenschaften (Bonn: H. Bouvier and Co. Verlag, 1947), p. 3; Rothacker, in Werner Ziegenfuss and Gertrud Jung, Philosophen-Lexikon. Handwörterbuch der Philosophie nach Personen (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1950), pp. 375-382.
12. A. Diemer, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, ed. Joachim Ritter, 3 (Basel and Stuttgart: Schwabe & Co. Verlag, 1974), 211, 215. See also Erich Rothacker, Logik und Systematik der Geisteswissenschaften (Bonn: H. Bouvier and Co. Verlag, 1947), p. 3; Rothacker, in Werner Ziegenfuss and Gertrud Jung, Philosophen-Lexikon. Handwörterbuch der Philosophie nach Personen (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1950), pp. 375-382.
13. A. Diemer, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, ed. Joachim Ritter, 3 (Basel and Stuttgart: Schwabe & Co. Verlag, 1974), 211, 215. See also Erich Rothacker, Logik und Systematik der Geisteswissenschaften (Bonn: H. Bouvier and Co. Verlag, 1947), p. 3; Rothacker, in Werner Ziegenfuss and Gertrud Jung, Philosophen-Lexikon. Handwörterbuch der Philosophie nach Personen (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1950), pp. 375-382.
14. Berta Karlik and Erich Schmid, Franz Serafin Exner und sein Kreis: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Physik in Oesterreich (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1982).
15. Ludwig Boltzmann, Vorlesungen über Gastheorie, II. Theil (Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1898), Vorwort, pp. v-vi. All translations from the German in this paper are those of the author.
16. Boltzmann, Vorlesungen über die Mechanik, 1. Theil (Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1897), Vorwort, p. v. Bring' vor, was wahr ist;-Schreib' so, dass es klar ist-Und verficht's, bis es mit dir gar ist!
17. My paper on this topic entitled: "The Austrian Revolt in Classical Mechanics: The Route from Probability and Chance to Radioactivity" (presented July 7, 1997, in Paris at an International Conference on Radioactivity and Culture) is in press.
18. Franz Exner, "Ueber Gesetze in Naturwissenschaft und Humanistik." Die feierliche Inauguration des Rektors der Wiener Universität für das Studienjahr 1908/1909, 15. Oktober 1908 (Wien: Selbstverlag der K. K. Universität, 1908).
19. Ibid., p. 46.
20. Ibid., p. 47.
21. Ibid., p. 48.
22. Ibid., p. 51.
23. Franz Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften (Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1919), p. v. The lectures brought together in this volume were delivered by Exner during the war years 1914-1918.
24. In addition to Boltzmann's 3-volume Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen edited by Fritz Hasenöhrl (Leipzig, 1900; New York: Chelsea Publishing Co., 1968), and Populäre Schriften (Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905), the best direct source for Boltzmann's philosophy of the sciences is Ludwig Boltzmann, Principien der Naturfilosofi, 1903-1906, edited by Ilse M. Fasol-Boltzmann (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1990).
25. In addition to Boltzmann's 3-volume Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen edited by Fritz Hasenöhrl (Leipzig, 1900; New York: Chelsea Publishing Co., 1968), and Populäre Schriften (Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905), the best direct source for Boltzmann's philosophy of the sciences is Ludwig Boltzmann, Principien der Naturfilosofi, 1903-1906, edited by Ilse M. Fasol-Boltzmann (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1990).
26. In addition to Boltzmann's 3-volume Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen edited by Fritz Hasenöhrl (Leipzig, 1900; New York: Chelsea Publishing Co., 1968), and Populäre Schriften (Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905), the best direct source for Boltzmann's philosophy of the sciences is Ludwig Boltzmann, Principien der Naturfilosofi, 1903-1906, edited by Ilse M. Fasol-Boltzmann (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1990).
27. Exner, Inauguration (ref. 13), pp. 51-52.
28. Ibid., p. 56.
29. Ibid., p. 57-59.
30. Ibid., p. 67-69.
31. Ibid., p. 71.
32. Ibid., p. 74.
33. Ibid., pp. 84-85.
34. Franz Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften, 2nd enlarged edition (Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1922). Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Welt-Geschichte, Vol. 1, Gestalt und Wirklichkeit (Vienna & Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1918), 639 pp. The second "totally reworked edition" of Untergang was published in Munich in 1922. The authorized English translation from the second German edition was made by Charles Francis Atkinson: The Decline of the West, Vol. 1, Form and Actuality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926). See especially the translator's Preface, pp. ix-xii. For a précis of Spengler as philosopher see W. H. Dray, "Oswald Spengler," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 7 (New York: Macmillan and Free Press; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1967), 527-530. For an analysis of post-World War I discussions on causality that lie at the root of the "capitulation to Spenglerism" (not strictly the views expressed by Spengler in Untergang as given in this paper) see Paul Forman, "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 3 (1971) 1-115. For comments about Exner see footnote 158 and pp. 74-75 regarding Exner as an early convert to acausality.
35. Franz Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften, 2nd enlarged edition (Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1922). Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Welt-Geschichte, Vol. 1, Gestalt und Wirklichkeit (Vienna & Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1918), 639 pp. The second "totally reworked edition" of Untergang was published in Munich in 1922. The authorized English translation from the second German edition was made by Charles Francis Atkinson: The Decline of the West, Vol. 1, Form and Actuality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926). See especially the translator's Preface, pp. ix-xii. For a précis of Spengler as philosopher see W. H. Dray, "Oswald Spengler," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 7 (New York: Macmillan and Free Press; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1967), 527-530. For an analysis of post-World War I discussions on causality that lie at the root of the "capitulation to Spenglerism" (not strictly the views expressed by Spengler in Untergang as given in this paper) see Paul Forman, "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 3 (1971) 1-115. For comments about Exner see footnote 158 and pp. 74-75 regarding Exner as an early convert to acausality.
36. Franz Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften, 2nd enlarged edition (Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1922). Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Welt-Geschichte, Vol. 1, Gestalt und Wirklichkeit (Vienna & Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1918), 639 pp. The second "totally reworked edition" of Untergang was published in Munich in 1922. The authorized English translation from the second German edition was made by Charles Francis Atkinson: The Decline of the West, Vol. 1, Form and Actuality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926). See especially the translator's Preface, pp. ix-xii. For a précis of Spengler as philosopher see W. H. Dray, "Oswald Spengler," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 7 (New York: Macmillan and Free Press; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1967), 527-530. For an analysis of post-World War I discussions on causality that lie at the root of the "capitulation to Spenglerism" (not strictly the views expressed by Spengler in Untergang as given in this paper) see Paul Forman, "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 3 (1971) 1-115. For comments about Exner see footnote 158 and pp. 74-75 regarding Exner as an early convert to acausality.
37. Franz Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften, 2nd enlarged edition (Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1922). Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Welt-Geschichte, Vol. 1, Gestalt und Wirklichkeit (Vienna & Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1918), 639 pp. The second "totally reworked edition" of Untergang was published in Munich in 1922. The authorized English translation from the second German edition was made by Charles Francis Atkinson: The Decline of the West, Vol. 1, Form and Actuality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926). See especially the translator's Preface, pp. ix-xii. For a précis of Spengler as philosopher see W. H. Dray, "Oswald Spengler," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 7 (New York: Macmillan and Free Press; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1967), 527-530. For an analysis of post-World War I discussions on causality that lie at the root of the "capitulation to Spenglerism" (not strictly the views expressed by Spengler in Untergang as given in this paper) see Paul Forman, "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 3 (1971) 1-115. For comments about Exner see footnote 158 and pp. 74-75 regarding Exner as an early convert to acausality.
38. Franz Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften, 2nd enlarged edition (Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1922). Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Welt-Geschichte, Vol. 1, Gestalt und Wirklichkeit (Vienna & Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1918), 639 pp. The second "totally reworked edition" of Untergang was published in Munich in 1922. The authorized English translation from the second German edition was made by Charles Francis Atkinson: The Decline of the West, Vol. 1, Form and Actuality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926). See especially the translator's Preface, pp. ix-xii. For a précis of Spengler as philosopher see W. H. Dray, "Oswald Spengler," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 7 (New York: Macmillan and Free Press; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1967), 527-530. For an analysis of post-World War I discussions on causality that lie at the root of the "capitulation to Spenglerism" (not strictly the views expressed by Spengler in Untergang as given in this paper) see Paul Forman, "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 3 (1971) 1-115. For comments about Exner see footnote 158 and pp. 74-75 regarding Exner as an early convert to acausality.
39. Exner, Vorlesungen, 1922, p. vi.
40. Ibid., p. vii.
41. Ibid., p. v.
42. Ibid., p. x.
43. Ibid., pp. viii-ix.
44. Spengler, Untergang, 1918, p. vii. All quotations have been made directly by the author from the first (1918) edition of Untergang because that is the version that Exner read and reacted to.
45. Ibid., p. vii. This sentence about the German military achievement is included in the 1918 Preface that is reproduced in the 2nd 1922 edition. Oddly, it was deleted in the English translation of 1926 by Atkinson.
46. Spengler, Untergang, völlig umgestalte Ausgabe, Munich 1922.
47. Spengler, Untergang, 1919, Faustische und Apollinische Naturerkenntnis, pp. 547-639. Decline, 1926, pp. 377-428. Spengler represents the Apollinian soul (Nietzsche's term) as the soul of ancient/Greek/classical culture symbolized by the manly life-sized nude statue: local, visible, tangible, static, and finite in the space and time of the here and now. By contrast the Faustian soul (of Goethe) is characterized by deep consciousness and introspection. The soul's prime symbol (Ur-Symbol) is boundless space filled with dynamic activity.
48. Spengler, Untergang, 1919, Faustische und Apollinische Naturerkenntnis, pp. 547-639. Decline, 1926, pp. 377-428. Spengler represents the Apollinian soul (Nietzsche's term) as the soul of ancient/Greek/classical culture symbolized by the manly life-sized nude statue: local, visible, tangible, static, and finite in the space and time of the here and now. By contrast the Faustian soul (of Goethe) is characterized by deep consciousness and introspection. The soul's prime symbol (Ur-Symbol) is boundless space filled with dynamic activity.
49. Spengler, Untergang, 1919, p. 620. Spengler, commonly known as a philosopher, had received a doctorate in 1904, with a thesis on Heraclitus, after studying mathematics, natural science, history, literature, and philosophy at the universities in Munich, Berlin, and Halle.
50. Spengler, Untergang, 1918, p. 621.
51. Ibid., p. 627.
52. Ibid., p. 631.
53. Ibid., p. 639.
54. Exner, Vorlesungen, 1922, p. xi.
55. Ibid., p. xi.
56. Ibid., p. xiii.
57. Juliet Gardiner, ed., The History Debate (London: Collins and Brown, 1990). Essay by G. R. Elton, pp. 6-12.
58. Exner, Vorlesungen, 1919 (ref. 18), p. 714.