Knowledge and Errors

Author: Ernst Mach [Austria]
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: Ernst Mach achieved numerous significant accomplishments in his lifetime: determining the ratio of airflow speed to the speed of sound, now commonly known as the "Mach number"; as well as concepts like the "Mach angle," "Mach wave," and "Mach reflection" in optics and aerodynamics; discovering the physiological phenomenon of "Mach bands"; providing the foundational ideas for Gestalt psychology, earning him the title of "pioneer of Gestalt psychology"; and critiquing the mechanistic view of nature, being hailed by Einstein as the "pioneer of relativity." Knowledge and Error is Mach's concluding work, in which he systematically and comprehensively elaborates on his philosophical thoughts in his later years. It extensively employs materials and examples from physics, biology, physiology, psychology, mathematics, philosophy, pathology, and even mythology to elucidate the approximate relationship between popular and scientific thinking. Mach believed that objective and subjective factors constitute the self, with the subject and object being interdependent; the material and spiritual realms share common elements and are not in sharp opposition; and the broader sense of self encompasses the entire universe, including human consciousness. Mach played a crucial role in the transition from French positivism to logical positivism. His independent skeptical attitude and the idea of the relativity of knowledge influenced nearly all later natural scientists, being revered by Western philosophers as a leading scientific philosopher. Memory, reproduction, and association; emission, instinct, will, and self—exploring the development of the individual at the habitats of nature and culture.