Two complementary debates of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century are examined here: the debate on the legitimacy of hypotheses in the natural sciences and the debate on intentionality and ‘representations without object’ in philosophy. Both are shown to rest on two core issues: the attitude of the subject and the mode of presentation chosen to display a domain of phenomena. An orientation other than the one which contributed to shape twentieth-century philosophy of science is explored through the (...) analysis of the role given to assumptions in Boltzmann’s research strategy, where assumptions are contrasted to hypotheses, axioms, and principles, and in Meinong’s criticism of the privileged status attributed to representations in mental activities. Boltzmann’s computational style in mathematics and Meinong’s criticism of the confusion between representation and judgment give prominence to an indirect mode of presentation, adopted in a state of suspended belief which is characteristic of assumptions and which enables one to grasp objects that cannot be reached through direct representation or even analogies. The discussion shows how assumptions and the movement to fiction can be essential steps in the quest for objectivity. The conclusion restates the issues of the two debates in a contemporary perspective and shows how recent developments in philosophy of science and philosophy of language and mind can be brought together by arguing for a twofold conception of reference.Keywords: Assumption; Hypothesis; Description; Mode of presentation; Ludwig Boltzmann; Alexius Meinong. (shrink)

In spite of having published more than hundred articles and three monographs, the chemist and statistician Alfred James Lotka (1880–1949) is not very well known. Because he had not experienced a conventional academic curriculum, he remained ‚at the margins’ of the scientific community. In 1925 he aimed for a breakthrough with his first monograph Elements of Physical Biology. The basic idea of this study was to understand nature in terms of energy. Lotka’s mathematical approach was highly innovative, although he had (...) borrowed certain notions from his former teacher, the physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald. This article focuses on the very process of how a new idea developed and spread through the scientific community, and tries to determine to what extent the author—with his personality, his intentions and feelings—was part of this process. This includes looking at the emotional strain that followed the publication of Lotka’s masterpiece. Considering his anxieties, worries and distress during the period of reception, and his efforts to make sure his book was acknowledged by its audience, the article sheds light on often neglected aspects of scientific work such as identification, intention, mimicry, originality, and rivalry. The case study deals with a systematic blindness in the history of science: it takes into account the actors of science, their personality and their strategic moves, in order to come to a better understanding of the close connection between their work and their actions. In addition, the history of Lotka’s worries about the reception of his book might help us challenge the postulate of „publish or perish“ in today’s science. (shrink)

In spite of having published more than hundred articles and three monographs, the chemist and statistician Alfred James Lotka is not very well known. Because he had not experienced a conventional academic curriculum, he remained ‚at the margins’ of the scientific community. In 1925 he aimed for a breakthrough with his first monograph Elements of Physical Biology. The basic idea of this study was to understand nature in terms of energy. Lotka’s mathematical approach was highly innovative, although he had borrowed (...) certain notions from his former teacher, the physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald. This article focuses on the very process of how a new idea developed and spread through the scientific community, and tries to determine to what extent the author—with his personality, his intentions and feelings—was part of this process. This includes looking at the emotional strain that followed the publication of Lotka’s masterpiece. Considering his anxieties, worries and distress during the period of reception, and his efforts to make sure his book was acknowledged by its audience, the article sheds light on often neglected aspects of scientific work such as identification, intention, mimicry, originality, and rivalry. The case study deals with a systematic blindness in the history of science: it takes into account the actors of science, their personality and their strategic moves, in order to come to a better understanding of the close connection between their work and their actions. In addition, the history of Lotka’s worries about the reception of his book might help us challenge the postulate of „publish or perish“ in today’s science. (shrink)

The article aims to provide a new perspective on the role played by Maksim Gorky in the creation of Soviet culture. From multiple documentary sources, it reconstructs the private Naturphilosophie that Gorky began developing in the early years of the twentieth century and which continued to inform his views after he took the helm of the Stalinist cultural establishment. At its center was the monistic concept of energy, which Gorky, under the influence of Aleksandr Bogdanov, came to regard as the (...) principle uniting objective processes and subjective phenomena, nature and human history. Insofar as Gorky’s energetics comprises both a doctrine of culture-building and a theory of subjectivity, it allows us to see in a new light the writer’s return to the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. His project for a new socialist culture was, at the same time, a project of subjectivity, as he sought to fashion himself into what he thought a socialist individual should be. (shrink)

The Religious War of Science. Historical Argumentation in the Academic Speeches of Emil DuBois‐Reymond (1818–1896). Among the protagonists of the “laboratory revolution” (Cunningham/Williams) in 19th‐century physiology were the self‐proclaimed ‘organic physicists’ (“organische Physiker”), who shared a mechanistic conception of life processes. One of their key figures was the physiologist Emil DuBois‐Reymond (1818–1896) who not only excelled in the field of neuroscience but also became known, over the decades of his active career, as an orator at the Berlin Academy of Sciences (...) and Humanities. In his academic speeches, DuBois‐Reymond regularly commemorated heroes of the history of science. On closer inspection, these references went far beyond paying the usual homage to precursors: This paper argues that DuBois‐Reymond made use of episodes from the history of science as a means to legitimate his own reductionist research programme and, at the same time, decry idealistic natural philosophy and vitalistic positions. Drawing upon biblical rhetorics, DuBois‐Reymond systematically construed experimental physiology as the culmination of a teleological development, and, hence, organic physicists as the incarnation of scientific ‘redeemers’. According to him, the success of ‘organic physics’ displayed the peak of an inevitable development. (shrink)

At the turn of the twentieth century, Helm and Ostwald were the most prominent supporters of so-called ‘energetics’, which aimed to unify all physics by employing the sole concept of energy, without relying on mechanical models. This paper argues that Cassirer's interest in the history of the energy principle and the energetic controversy is entangled with the main themes of his philosophy of physics up to the 1920s: the opposition between the a priori and the a posteriori and the substance-concept (...) and the function-concept. These interwoven motifs are not always easy to disentangle. The paper suggests that Cassirer's interpretation of the energy principle can serve as a guiding thread that runs through Cassirer's philosophy of physics up to the 1920s. (shrink)

This is the second of a series of essays on the development and reception of Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics. The first essay described the chemical origins of Ostwald’s interest in the energy concept and his motivations for seeking a comprehensive science of energy. The present essay and the next discuss his various attempts, beginning in 1891 and extending over almost 3 years, to develop a consistent and coherent energetic theory. A final essay will consider reactions to this work and Ostwald’s replies, (...) and will also seek to evaluate his program of research. Ostwald’s project – to reconstruct physics and chemistry “as a pure energetics” – is worth attending to for several reasons: first, because Ostwald did ground-breaking work in chemistry (he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1909 for his studies in catalysis and rates of reaction); second, because an important school of physical chemistry formed around him at Leipzig, a school that promoted his ideas; and, finally, because he was a prominent and vigorous participant in debates at the end of the nineteenth century concerning the proper course of physical theory. (shrink)

This is the third of a series of essays on the development and reception of Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics. The first essay described the chemical origins of Ostwald’s interest in the energy concept and his motivations for seeking a comprehensive science of energy. The second essay and the present one discuss his various attempts, beginning in 1891 and extending over almost 3 years, to develop a consistent and coherent energetic theory. A final essay will consider reactions to this work and Ostwald’s (...) replies, and will also seek to evaluate his program of research. Ostwald’s project—to reconstruct physics and chemistry “as a pure energetics”—is worth attending to for several reasons: first, because Ostwald did ground-breaking work in chemistry (he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1909 for his studies in catalysis and rates of reaction); second, because an important school of physical chemistry formed around him at Leipzig, a school that promoted his ideas; and, finally, because he was a prominent and vigorous participant in debates at the end of the nineteenth century concerning the proper course of physical theory. (shrink)

This essay focuses on the place of the second law of thermodynamics in Wilhelm Ostwald's physical chemistry. After a brief introduction to his energetic theory, which was supposed to be a generalization of thermodynamics, I contrast Ostwald's understanding of the second law, which ignored entropy and irreversibility, with Max Planck's, which emphasized both. I then consider how Ostwald sought to develop physical chemistry without any concern for irreversibility and little concern for entropy, and I argue that he was mistaken.

In his “A Programmatic Attempt at an Anthropology of Knowledge,” published in 1981, Yehuda Elkana briefly introduced the notions of dramatic and epic theater as metaphors for distinct and opposite conceptions of history. He elaborated more fully on this theme in a paper published in 1982 on the occasion of the Albert Einstein centenary celebration. Elkana there criticized the “myth of simplicity” surrounding Einstein, and proposed to replace a “facile holism” often attributed to Einstein with “two-tier thinking.” According to Elkana, (...) Einstein's historical epistemology was a blend of an epic, contingent view of historical scientific change coupled with strong scientific realism. (shrink)