IMGr5

Ernst Mach

carly bccausc I was still too young to understand anything. I would thcn prcss mysclf into my pillow and bc as still as possible and would not losc even a single word of what was rcad. 1 was g:vcn the most plcasurc by Tales of a Grandjathcr front Scottish III story by Sir Walter Scott.” ³⁰

IV

Johann Mach had bccomc a “freethinker," 3nd his son acccptcd similar views as a matter of coursc.³¹ Both dislikcd the post'1848 “clcrical-reactionary” political regime in Austria. To escape such “oppression' Ernst Mach asked his father to have him apprcnticcd to a cabinctmakcr for two years so that hc would have a tradc when he cmigrated to America, “the land of my decpcst longing." ³“ His father acquicsced, so that for two fuli days every weck for morc than two years Ernst learncd cabinetmaking from a skilled master in a ncighboring village. Mach remembered this time with plcasurc. I le came to enjoy working with his hands, and the tired fccling at the end of the day, often coupled with visions of flying machincs and other futurę invcntions, was quitc agrceable. Also, much that he learned came in handy when hc came to set up his own laboratory in later years.

Mach remembered only shortly afterward a turning point in his philosophical devclopmcnt: “I havc always fclt it as a strokc of spccial good fortunę, that carly in lifc, at about the age of fiftecn, I lighted, in the library of my father, on a copy of Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Futurę Metap/iysics. The book madę at the time a powerful and in-effaceable impression upon me, the likc of which I never afterward cjtpcrienccd in any ot my philosophical rcading.” ³³

Before continuing with young Mach’s views, let me clarify thrcc different epistemological positions that must be understood in order to obtain perspective in understanding the dcvelopment of Mach’s philosophical ideas. Most peoplc normally bchavc as nawę realists, describ-ing naturę in presentationalist terms (apparent physical objeets arc physical objeets) and explaining in representationalist terms (innate forccs are causcs). Most people’s best or most consistent understanding, or what I cali "common sensc” in this book, is cattsal realism which is representationalist in both dcscription and explanation (conscious ex-pcricnce provides cvidcnce and allows us to infer the characteristics of physical objeets and causes that lic cntirely outside conscious expcri-

cncc). Phenomcnalism is prcsentationalist in both description aad.OL-planation. Likc causal rcalism it idcntifics apparcnt physical objeets with sensations, and likc naivc rcalism it is prcsentationalist in dcscrib-ing naturę, but unlikc both naivc and causal rcalism it rcjccts causcs as forccs or agents in favor of cxplanation in terms of ‘‘laws," “mathe-matical functio.ns,” or “regular sccjucnccs of cvcnts.'*

Mach elaimed that Rant endcd his “naivc rcalism," but in fact, Mach had ncvcr acceptcd the naWc rcalisfs approach to causal cxplanation in the first place. What Kant did was mcrcly to changc Machs particular form of cpistcmological presentationalism from a sense physical-objccts to a sense-sensations Identification. In short, Kant hclped ovcrthrow thosc aspects of naivc rcalism which Mach had only incompletcly or rcluctantly acceptcd as improvcmcnts ovcr his "childhood phcnomcnal-ism."

Two or three years after his Kant expericnce, Mach madę an cvcn morę overt return to his childhood "solution of noncomprchension" by augmenting his epistcmological with an ontological phenomcnalism (his theory of cognition with a theory of rcality):

“The supcrlluity of the role played by the ‘thing-in-itsdF abruptly dawned upon mc. On a bright summer day in the open air, the world with my ego suddcnly appeared to mc as one cohcrcnt mass of sensations, only morc strongly cohcrcnt in the ego. Although the actual working out of this thought did not occur until a latcr period, yet this moment was dccisisc for my whole view.” ^3ł

v

Ernst Mach madę a second attempt to match wits with an Austrian Gymnasium. I Ic passed an cntrancc cxamination and in the fali of 1853 was admitted into the sixth class of the Public Piarist Gymnasium in Kremsier, Moravia. Hc had both social and ucadcmic problems. In his own words: “With respect to social relations and the likc I must havc sccmcd cxtrcmcly immaturc and cliildish. Apart from my slight talent in this direction, this is to be explained to some cxtent by the fact that I was Fiftecn ycais old before I ever engaged in social lnter-coursc, particuiarly with students of my own age. . . . At the beginning things did not go cspccially well, sińce I lackcd all of the school clever-ness and slyness which first have to be acquired in these matters.’’^s:' Also, Machs attitude rnay have left something to be desired. His al-

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