40 found
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  1.  59
    Motivational Kantianism: Cassirer's late shift towards a regulative conception of the a priori.Marco Giovanelli - 2022 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 95 (C):118-125.
  2.  92
    (1 other version)‘But one must not legalize the mentioned sin’: Phenomenological vs. dynamical treatments of rods and clocks in Einstein׳s thought.Marco Giovanelli - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 48 (1):20-44.
    The paper offers a historical overview of Einstein's oscillating attitude towards a "phenomenological" and "dynamical" treatment of rods and clocks in relativity theory. Contrary to what it has been usually claimed in recent literature, it is argued that this distinction should not be understood in the framework of opposition between principle and constructive theories. In particular Einstein does not seem to have plead for a "dynamical" explanation for the phenomenon rods contraction and clock dilation which was initially described only "kinematically". (...)
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  3.  48
    ‘Like thermodynamics before Boltzmann.’ On the emergence of Einstein's distinction between constructive and principle theories.Marco Giovanelli - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71 (C):118-157.
  4.  56
    Hermann Cohen's Das Princip der Infinitesimal-Methode: The history of an unsuccessful book.Marco Giovanelli - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 58:9-23.
    This paper offers an introduction to Hermann Cohen’s Das Princip der Infinitesimal-Methode, and recounts the history of its controversial reception by Cohen’s early sympathizers, who would become the so-called ‘Marburg school’ of Neo-Kantianism, as well as the reactions it provoked outside this group. By dissecting the ambiguous attitudes of the best-known representatives of the school, as well as those of several minor figures, this paper shows that Das Princip der Infinitesimal-Methode is a unicum in the history of philosophy: it represents (...)
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  5. (1 other version)Talking at cross-purposes: how Einstein and the logical empiricists never agreed on what they were disagreeing about.Marco Giovanelli - 2013 - Synthese 190 (17):3819-3863.
    By inserting the dialogue between Einstein, Schlick and Reichenbach into a wider network of debates about the epistemology of geometry, this paper shows that not only did Einstein and Logical Empiricists come to disagree about the role, principled or provisional, played by rods and clocks in General Relativity, but also that in their lifelong interchange, they never clearly identified the problem they were discussing. Einstein’s reflections on geometry can be understood only in the context of his ”measuring rod objection” against (...)
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  6. Reality and Negation - Kant's Principle of Anticipations of Perception.Marco Giovanelli - 2011 - Springer.
  7.  35
    Nothing but coincidences: the point-coincidence and Einstein’s struggle with the meaning of coordinates in physics.Marco Giovanelli - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (2):1-64.
    In his 1916 review paper on general relativity, Einstein made the often-quoted oracular remark that all physical measurements amount to a determination of coincidences, like the coincidence of a pointer with a mark on a scale. This argument, which was meant to express the requirement of general covariance, immediately gained great resonance. Philosophers such as Schlick found that it expressed the novelty of general relativity, but the mathematician Kretschmann deemed it as trivial and valid in all spacetime theories. With the (...)
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  8.  85
    Erich Kretschmann as a proto-logical-empiricist: Adventures and misadventures of the point-coincidence argument.Marco Giovanelli - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (2):115-134.
    The present paper attempts to show that a 1915 article by Erich Kretschmann must be credited not only for being the source of Einstein’s point-coincidence remark, but also for having anticipated the main lines of the logical-empiricist interpretation of general relativity. Whereas Kretschmann was inspired by the work of Mach and Poincaré, Einstein inserted Kretschmann’s point-coincidence parlance into the context of Ricci and Levi-Civita’s absolute differential calculus. Kretschmann himself realized this and turned the point-coincidence argument against Einstein in his second (...)
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  9.  46
    Relativity Theory as a Theory of Principles: A Reading of Cassirer’s Zur Einstein’schen Relativitätstheorie.Marco Giovanelli - 2023 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 13 (2):261-296.
    In his Zur Einstein’schen Relativitätstheorie, Ernst Cassirer presents relativity theory as the last manifestation of the tradition of the “physics of principles” that, starting from the nineteenth century, has progressively prevailed over that of the “physics of models.” In particular, according to Cassirer, the relativity principle plays a role similar to the energy principle in previous physics. In this article, I argue that this comparison represents the core of Cassirer’s neo-Kantian interpretation of relativity. Cassirer pointed out that before and after (...)
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  10.  88
    ‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’: The Reichenbach–Einstein debate on the geometrization of the electromagnetic field.Marco Giovanelli - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 54:35-51.
    This paper analyzes correspondence between Reichenbach and Einstein from the spring of 1926, concerning what it means to ‘geometrize’ a physical field. The content of a typewritten note that Reichenbach sent to Einstein on that occasion is reconstructed, showing that it was an early version of §49 of the untranslated Appendix to his Philosophie der Raum-Zeit-Lehre, on which Reichenbach was working at the time. This paper claims that the toy-geometrization of the electromagnetic field that Reichenbach presented in his note should (...)
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  11.  27
    Appearance and reality: Einstein and the early debate on the reality of length contraction.Marco Giovanelli - 2023 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13 (4):1-30.
    In 1909, Ehrenfest published a note in the Physikalische Zeitschrift showing that a Born rigid cylinder could not be set into rotation without stresses, as elements of the circumference would be contracted but not the radius. Ignatowski and Varićak challenged Ehrenfest’s result in the same journal, arguing that the stresses would emerge if length contraction were a real dynamical effect, as in Lorentz’s theory. However, no stresses are expected to arise, according to Einstein’s theory, where length contraction is only an (...)
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  12.  69
    ‘Physics is a kind of metaphysics’: Émile Meyerson and Einstein’s late rationalistic realism.Marco Giovanelli - 2018 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 8 (3):783-829.
    Gerald Holton has famously described Einstein’s career as a philosophical “pilgrimage”. Starting on “the historic ground” of Machian positivism and phenomenalism, following the completion of general relativity in late 1915, Einstein’s philosophy endured (a) a speculative turn: physical theorizing appears as ultimately a “pure mathematical construction” guided by faith in the simplicity of nature and (b) a realistic turn: science is “nothing more than a refinement ”of the everyday belief in the existence of mind-independent physical reality. Nevertheless, Einstein’s mathematical constructivism (...)
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  13.  43
    The Sensation and the Stimulus: Psychophysics and the Prehistory of the Marburg School.Marco Giovanelli - 2017 - Perspectives on Science 25 (3):287-323.
    In 1912, Ernst Cassirer contributed to the special issue of the Kant-Studien that honored Hermann Cohen's retirement—his mentor and teacher, and the recognized founding father of the so-called 'Marburg school' of Neo-Kantianism. In the context of an otherwise rather conventional presentation of Cohen's interpretation of Kant, Cassirer made a remark that is initially surprising. It is “anything but accurate,” he wrote, to regard Cohen's philosophy as focused “exclusively on the mathematical theory of nature,” as is usually done. A reconstruction of (...)
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  14.  15
    „Zwei Bedeutungen des Apriori“. Hermann Cohens Unterscheidung zwischen metaphysischem und transzendentalem a priori und die Vorgeschichte des relativierten a priori.Marco Giovanelli - 2018 - In Christian Damböck (ed.), Philosophie Und Wissenschaft Bei Hermann Cohen/Philosophy and Science in Hermann Cohen. Springer Verlag. pp. 177-203.
    In his 1920 monograph Relativitätstheorie und Erkenntnis apriori the young Reichenbach distinguished between two meanings of the a priori: ‚apodictically valid, true for all time‘ and ‚constituting the concept of object‘. At the end of the 1990s Michael Friedman drew again the attention of philosophers of science to this forgotten distinction. In the spirit of Reichenbach’s early Kantianism Friedman attempted to construct a relativized or temporally variable a priori, which is nevertheless constitutive of the object of knowledge. Friedman rejects an (...)
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  15.  87
    The Forgotten Tradition: How the Logical Empiricists Missed the Philosophical Significance of the Work of Riemann, Christoffel and Ricci.Marco Giovanelli - 2013 - Erkenntnis 78 (6):1219-1257.
    This paper attempts to show how the logical empiricists’ interpretation of the relation between geometry and reality emerges from a “collision” of mathematical traditions. Considering Riemann’s work as the initiator of a 19th century geometrical tradition, whose main protagonists were Helmholtz and Poincaré, the logical empiricists neglected the fact that Riemann’s revolutionary insight flourished instead in a non-geometrical tradition dominated by the works of Christoffel and Ricci-Curbastro roughly in the same years. I will argue that, in the attempt to interpret (...)
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  16.  14
    The practice of principles: Planck’s vision of a relativistic general dynamics.Marco Giovanelli - 2024 - Archive for History of Exact Sciences 78 (3):305-360.
    Planck’s pioneering contributions to special relativity have received less consideration than one might expect in the historiography and philosophy of physics. Although they are celebrated in isolation, they are mostly not understood as integral to an overarching project. This paper aims (a) to provide a historically accurate overview of Planck’s contributions to the early history of relativity that is reasonably accessible to today’s reader, (b) to demonstrate how these contributions can be presented against the background of Planck’s ‘Helmholtzian’ vision of (...)
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  17.  11
    Variability and substantiality. Kurd Lasswitz, the Marburg school and the neo-Kantian historiography of science.Marco Giovanelli - 2024 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 106 (C):155-164.
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  18.  34
    Cassirer and energetics: an investigation of Cassirer's early philosophy of physics.Marco Giovanelli - 2023 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (6):1188-1211.
    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 (...)
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  19. Das Problem in ein Postulat verwandeln: Cassirer und Einsteins Unterscheidung von konstruktiven und Prinzipien-Theorien.Marco Giovanelli - 2016 - In Matthias Neuber (ed.), Husserl, Cassirer, Schlick: "Wissenschaftliche Philosophie" im Spannungsfeld von Phänomenologie, Neukantianismus und logischem Empirismus. [New York]: Springer.
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  20.  14
    Coordination, Geometrization, Unification: An Overview of the Reichenbach–Einstein Debate on the Unified Field Theory Program.Marco Giovanelli - 2023 - In Chiara Russo Krauss & Luigi Laino (eds.), Philosophers and Einstein's Relativity: The Early Philosophical Reception of the Relativistic Revolution. Springer Verlag. pp. 139-182.
    The quest for a ‘unified field theory’, which aims to integrate gravitational and electromagnetic fields into a single field structure, spanned most of Einstein’s professional life from 1919 until his death in 1955. It is seldom noted that Hans Reichenbach was possibly the only philosopher who could navigate the technical intricacies of the various unification attempts. By analyzing published writings and private correspondences, this paper aims to provide an overview of the Einstein-Reichenbach relationship from the point of view of their (...)
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  21.  3
    The philosophical coming of age of science. Euler’s role in Cassirer’s early philosophy of space and time.Marco Giovanelli - 2024 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 108 (C):55-63.
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  22.  31
    Geometrization vs. unification: the Reichenbach–Einstein quarrel about the Fernparallelismus field theory.Marco Giovanelli - 2022 - Synthese 200 (3):1-44.
    This study reconstructs the 1928–1929 correspondence between Reichenbach and Einstein about the latter’s latest distant parallelism-unified field theory, which attracted considerable public attention at the end of the 1920s. Reichenbach, who had recently become a Professor in Berlin, had the opportunity to discuss the theory with Einstein and therefore sent him a manuscript with some comments for feedback. The document has been preserved among Einstein’s papers. However, the subsequent correspondence took an unpleasant turn after Reichenbach published a popular article on (...)
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  23.  23
    Correction to: Nothing but coincidences: the point-coincidence and Einstein’s struggle with the meaning of coordinates in physics.Marco Giovanelli - 2022 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (3):1-2.
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  24.  10
    August Stadler: Interprete di Kant.Marco Giovanelli - 2002 - Guida.
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  25.  34
    (1 other version)Collision of Traditions. The Emergence of Logical Empiricism Between the Riemannian and Helmholtzian Traditions.Marco Giovanelli - 2013 - .
    This paper attempts to explain the emergence of the logical empiricist philosophy of space and time as a collision of mathematical traditions. The historical development of the ``Riemannian'' and ``Helmholtzian'' traditions in 19th century mathematics is investigated. Whereas Helmholtz's insistence on rigid bodies in geometry was developed group theoretically by Lie and philosophically by Poincaré, Riemann's Habilitationsvotrag triggered Christoffel's and Lipschitz's work on quadratic differential forms, paving the way to Ricci's absolute differential calculus. The transition from special to general relativity (...)
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  26. Deutscher Und Russischer Neukantianismus: Von der Erkenntnislogik Zur Sozialpaedagogik.Marco Giovanelli - 2011 - Kã¶Nigshausen Und Neumann, 2010.
     
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  27. Grandezza intensiva e grandezza infinitesimale Hermann Cohen e il principio kantiano delle Anticipazioni della percezione.Marco Giovanelli - 2003 - 19:275--318.
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  28.  19
    Gradus realitatis – die intensive Größe bei Kant und im Neukantianismus.Marco Giovanelli - 2016 - In Thomas Leinkauf & Thomas Kisser (eds.), Intensität Und Realität: Systematische Analysen Zur Problemgeschichte von Gradualität, Intensität Und Quantitativer Differenz in Ontologie Und Metaphysik. De Gruyter. pp. 141-170.
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  29. Kants Grundsatz der ‘Antizipationen der Wahrnehmung’ und seine Bedeutung für die theoretische Philosophie des Marburger Neukantianismus”.Marco Giovanelli - 2007 - In Marion Heinz & Christian Krijnen (eds.), Kant Im Neukantianismus: Fortschritt Oder Rã¼Ckschritt? Kã¶Nigshausen Und Neumann.
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  30.  22
    Kant, Helmholtz, Riemann und der Ursprung der geometrischen Axiome.Marco Giovanelli - 2008 - Philosophia Naturalis 45 (2):236-269.
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  31. La distinzione kantiana tra 'concetto' e 'intuizione' e il problema della realtà delle 'relazioni'.Marco Giovanelli - 2005 - 10:113--146.
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  32.  60
    Leibniz Equivalence. On Leibniz's Influence on the Logical Empiricist Interpretation of General Relativity.Marco Giovanelli - unknown
    Einstein’s “point-coincidence argument'” as a response to the “hole argument” is usually considered as an expression of “Leibniz equivalence,” a restatement of indiscernibility in the sense of Leibniz. Through a historical-critical analysis of Logical Empiricists' interpretation of General Relativity, the paper attempts to show that this labeling is misleading. Logical Empiricists tried explicitly to understand the point-coincidence argument as an indiscernibility argument of the Leibnizian kind, such as those formulated in the 19th century debate about geometry, by authors such as (...)
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  33.  62
    Leibniz, Kant und der moderne Symmetriebegriff.Marco Giovanelli - 2011 - Kant Studien 102 (4):422-454.
    The paper analyses the significance of the modern concept of „symmetry“ for the understanding of the concept of „intuition“ in Kant's philosophy of geometry. A symmetry transformation or automorphism is a structure preserving mapping of the space into itself that leaves all relevant structure intact so that the result is always like the original, in all relevant respects. Hermann Weyl was the first to show that this idea can be drawn on Leibniz's definition of similarity: two figures are similar if (...)
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  34.  37
    Leibniz-Äquivalenz vs. Einstein-Äquivalenz. Was man von der Logisch-Empiristischen (Fehl-)Interpretation des Punkt-Koinzidenz-Arguments lernen kann.Marco Giovanelli - 2013 - Philosophia Naturalis 50 (1):115-164.
    The discovery that Einstein's celebrated argument for general covariance, the 'point-coincidence argument ', was actually a response to the ' hole argument ' has generated an intense philosophical debate in the last thirty years. Even if the philosophical consequences of Einstein's argument turned out to be highly controversial, the protagonists of such a debate seem to agree on considering Einstein's argument as an expression of 'Leibniz equivalence', a modern version of Leibniz's celebrated indiscernibility arguments against Newton's absolute space. The paper (...)
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  35.  45
    (1 other version)Matthias Neuber: Die Grenzen des Revisionismus: Schlick, Cassirer und das Raumproblem.Marco Giovanelli - 2014 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 45 (2):393-401.
    Matthias Neuber’s book represents an important contribution to the relatively young discipline of the History of Philosophy of Science. Starting roughly in the 1980s, increasing attention has been devoted not only to the relationship between philosophy and the history of science, but to an accurate historical reconstruction of earlier projects within philosophy of science. One of the most outstanding results of these investigations has probably been the radical reshaping of the rather caricatural image of logical empiricism—for better or worse the (...)
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  36. Otto Buek und Michael Faradays Begriff der Materie.Marco Giovanelli - 2011 - In Deutscher Und Russischer Neukantianismus: Von der Erkenntnislogik Zur Sozialpaedagogik. Kã¶Nigshausen Und Neumann, 2010. pp. 334--343.
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  37.  54
    Urbild und Abbild. Leibniz, Kant und Hausdorff über das Raumproblem.Marco Giovanelli - 2010 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 41 (2):283-313.
    The article attempts to reconsider the relationship between Leibniz’s and Kant’s philosophy of geometry on the one hand and the nineteenth century debate on the foundation of geometry on the other. The author argues that the examples used by Leibniz and Kant to explain the peculiarity of the geometrical way of thinking are actually special cases of what the Jewish-German mathematician Felix Hausdorff called “transformation principle”, the very same principle that thinkers such as Helmholtz or Poincaré applied in a more (...)
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  38. Von der Realopposition zum Unendlichkleinen. Betrachtungen über das Verhältnis von Negation und Realität bei Kant und in der nachkantischen Philosophie.Marco Giovanelli - 2008 - In Pierfrancesco Fiorato (ed.), Verneinung, Andersheit Und Unendlichkeit Im Neukantianismus. Kã¶Nigshausen Und Neumann. pp. 10--25.
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  39. General Relativity 1916 - 2016.Anguel S. Stefanov & Marco Giovanelli (eds.) - 2017 - Minkowski Institute Press.
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  40.  37
    Jimena Canales. The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time. vii + 479 pp., bibl., index. Princeton, N.J./Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2015. $35. [REVIEW]Marco Giovanelli - 2017 - Isis 108 (3):732-733.
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