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Life Of Ernst Mach
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Philosophical Awakening
Mach credits his awakening to the reading of Kant's Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics at age 15. "The book made at the time a powerful and ineffaceable impression upon me, the like of which I never afterwards experienced in any of my philosophical reading." -Mach. Source:
Pajman, Paul. “Ernst Mach (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).” Stanford Encyclopedia, Stanford, 3 Mar. 2019, plato.stanford.edu/entries/ernst-mach. -
Publishes On the Effect of the Spatial Distribution of the Light Stimulus on the Retina
The source is not available any longer, but this publication established Mach Bands. It is a description of how we perceive gradients. He changed how we think we believe perception occurs completely. His idea was that perception does not consist of differences, but instead of relationships of surrounding stimuli. We never see direct stimuli, but only contrasts of perception. -
Publishes Lecture On Transformation and Adaptation in Scientific Thought
In this lecture, Mach puts forth that the mind is unable to come up with original ideas and thus reasoning doesn't create knowledge alone. Instead, our minds help pick out knowledge from variations. Source:
Mach, Ernst. Popular Scientific Lectures, (Religion of Science Library). 4th ed., The Open Court Pub. Co, 2022. -
Published Space and Geometry
Here is a short video of John Wheeler talking about Mach's influence on physics. https://youtu.be/EEnttvW_ct8 Source: ---. Space and Geometry: In the Light of Physiological, Psychological and Physical Inquiry (Dover Books on Mathematics). Dover Ed, Dover Publications, 2004. -
Publishes The Guiding Principles of My Scientific Theory
Mach wrote this in response to Planck's "Unity of the Physical World-Picture." It effectively summarized Mach's theory that science exists to improve the adaptation of memory to help an organism's development. This is the foundation of the purpose of science to give the most economical description of nature possible. These ideas work hand in hand and built a foundation for Kuhn's revolutionary idea's. -
Published Analysis of Sensations, and the relation of the physical to the psychical.
This work inspired great physicists such as Planck and Einstein by connecting the physical with the act of observing or psychological meaning. Most famously he continued to deny the reality of atoms. Source:
Mach. (1914). The analysis of sensations, and the relation of the physical to the psychical, by Dr. Ernst Mach ... translated from the 1st German edition by C.M. Williams; revised and supplemented from the 5th German edition by Sydney Waterlow. Open Court Publishing Company, 1914. -
Published Principles of the Theory of Heat
While published years after his death, this work solidified his reasoning behind why he denied atoms and pushed future scientists to not simply accept when they cannot directly observe. This type of thinking was critical for discoveries in the future that were not directly observable. Source: Mach, Ernst, and B. McGuinness. Principles of the Theory of Heat: Historically and Critically Elucidated (Vienna Circle Collection, 17). 1986th ed., Springer, 1986.