This volume is the first English resource to shed light on the
philosophy of Joseph Petzoldt (1862-1929), the main pupil of Ernst
Mach and founder of the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche
Philosophie, later the association of Berlin logical positivists. A
central figure in the early debate on the theory of relativity, his
work was praised by Einstein himself. Tracing the development of
Petzoldt's ideas, starting from his early acceptance of materialism
and Kantian agnosticism, Chiara Russo Krauss presents a comprehensive
reconstruction of his philosophy in the context of the German milieu.
She examines his attempt to develop a new philosophy following Gustav
Fechner and the empiriocriticism of Richard Avenarius and Ernst Mach.
In the final chapter, she sets out how Petzoldt proposed relativistic
positivism as the official interpretation of Einstein's relativity. By
illuminating key elements of Petzoldt's work, this is a valuable case
study for students and scholars of philosophy of science and late
19th-century and early 20th-century philosophy. It reveals the complex
interplay of two different tendencies of the time: neo-Kantianism and
its struggle to overcome the notion of thing-in-itself, as well as the
need for an epistemological foundation for the new advances of
science.
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From Mach's Positivism to Einstein's Relativity
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781350321465
Publisert
2022
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Academic
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter