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Experiment and Experience. On Ernst Mach’s Theory of Scientific Experimentation

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Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence

Part of the book series: Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook ((VCIY,volume 22))

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Abstract

This paper focuses on Ernst Mach’s theory of scientific experimentation. As I shall show, Mach presents an extraordinarily wide perspective on scientific experiments, bringing together heuristic, evolutionary, historical and didactical aspects. For Mach, experimentation is not reduced to controlled testing in a laboratory. It rather describes a quite general human, and even animal, activity to explore the world. By relying on such a broad notion of experiment, however, his theory has to deal with a wide range of objections. I shall analyse these objections by confronting Mach’s theory with Franz Brentano’s straightforward criticism. I shall conclude that Mach’s theory entails some unsolvable inconsistencies. These inconsistencies lead to some important questions that still pose challenges to the philosophy of scientific experimentation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Ian Hacking, Representing and Intervening. Introductory topics in the philosophy of natural science. Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press 2010 [1983], p. 149ff.

  2. 2.

    Cf. Michael Heidelberger, “Die Erweiterung der Wirklichkeit im Experiment”, in: M. Heidelberger\F. Steinle (Eds.): Experimental Essays – Versuche zum Experiment. Baden-Baden: Nomos 1998, pp. 71–92, here p. 72.

  3. 3.

    Otto Neurath, “Pseudorationalismus der Falsifikation”, in: Erkenntnis 5, 1, 1935, pp. 353–365, here pp. 360–361. Neurath rejects the idea of an ‘experimentum crucis’ by referring to a Duhemian holism. It might surprise that Neurath accuses Popper of over-emphasizing the importance of experiments because New Experimentalists, in turn, regarded Popper as a philosopher who systematically neglected the role of experiments by narrowing it to its critical role.

  4. 4.

    Cf. Peter Janich, “Methodisch-kulturalistische Theorie des Experiments”, in: M. Heidelberger\F. Steinle (Eds.): Experimental Essays – Versuche zum Experiment. Baden-Baden: Nomos 1998, pp. 93–112, here p. 94.

  5. 5.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung. Ed. by E. Nemeth and F. Stadtler, Berlin: Xenomoi 2011, pp. 193–229. The fourteenth chapter about thought experiments had partly been published before as “Über Gedankenexperimente”, in: Poskes Zeitschrift für physikalischen und chemischen Unterricht 10, 1, 1897, pp. 1–5.

  6. 6.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung. loc. cit., p. 198.

  7. 7.

    Cf. Aspasia S. Moue/Kyriakos A. Masavetas/Haido Karayianni, “Tracing the Development of Thought Experiments in the Philosophy of Natural Sciences“, in: Journal for General Philosophy of Science 37, 1, 2006, pp. 61–75. Mach introduced the notion of thought experiment in his Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung (see Ernst Mach, Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung. Historisch-kritisch dargestellt. Ed. by G. Wolters and G. Hon, Berlin: Xenomoi 2012, p. 43.)

  8. 8.

    Cf. Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 193.

  9. 9.

    Cf. Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 211.

  10. 10.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 193.

  11. 11.

    See, e.g., the title of one of the most important book for the movement, Ian Hacking’s Representing and Intervening, loc. cit.

  12. 12.

    Cf. Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 195.

  13. 13.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 195.

  14. 14.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 211.

  15. 15.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 196.

  16. 16.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 197.

  17. 17.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 201.

  18. 18.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 198.

  19. 19.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 197.

  20. 20.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 207.

  21. 21.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 209.

  22. 22.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit, p. 224.

  23. 23.

    Franz Brentano, Über Ernst Machs ‘Erkenntnis und Irrtum’, Ed. by R. M. Chisholm and J. C. Marek, Amsterdam: Rodopi 1988, p. 81.

  24. 24.

    Franz Brentano, Über Ernst Machs ‘Erkenntnis und Irrtum’, loc. cit., p. 80.

  25. 25.

    Franz Brentano, Über Ernst Machs ‘Erkenntnis und Irrtum’, loc. cit., p. 82. See also Francis Bacon’s ‘crucial instances’ in: The New Organon, Ed. By L. Jardine and M. Silverthorne, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000, Book II, Aphorism xxxvi, pp. 159ff.

  26. 26.

    Franz Brentano, Über Ernst Machs ‘Erkenntnis und Irrtum’, loc. cit., p.84.

  27. 27.

    Franz Brentano, Über Ernst Machs ‘Erkenntnis und Irrtum’, loc. cit., p.89.

  28. 28.

    Franz Brentano, Über Ernst Machs ‘Erkenntnis und Irrtum’, loc. cit., p.84.

  29. 29.

    Cf. Willard Van Orman Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism“, in: The Philosophical Review 60, 1, 1951, pp. 20–43.

  30. 30.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 207 ff.

  31. 31.

    Ernst Mach, „Vorwort zur deutschen Auflage“, in: Pierre Duhem, Ziel und Struktur der physikalischen Theorien, Hamburg: Meiner 1998, p. iv.

  32. 32.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 212.

  33. 33.

    See, for instance, Friedrich Steinle, “Entering New Fields: Exploratory Uses of Experimentation”, in: Philosophy of Science 64, 1997, pp. 565–574.

  34. 34.

    Cf., Ulrich Krohs, „Convenience Experimentation“, in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43, 1, 2012, pp. 52–57.

  35. 35.

    Cited after Robert S. Cohen/Raymond J. Seeger (Eds.), Ernst Mach – Physicist and Philosopher, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing, 1970, p. 220.

  36. 36.

    Cf. Ernst Mach, Die Analyse der Empfindungen, Ed. by G. Wolters, Berlin: Xenomoi 2008.

  37. 37.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 196.

  38. 38.

    Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung, loc. cit., p. 198, fn 306.

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  1. University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    Eva-Maria Jung

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  1. Institute Vienna Circle, University of Vienna, Vienna Circle Society, Vienna, Austria

    Friedrich Stadler

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Jung, EM. (2019). Experiment and Experience. On Ernst Mach’s Theory of Scientific Experimentation. In: Stadler, F. (eds) Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04378-0_31

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