Interpreting Mach: Critical Essays

General

A new edited volume may interest AHP readers, Interpreting Mach: Critical Essays. Book description and table of contents follow below.

This volume presents new essays on the work and thought of physicist, psychologist, and philosopher Ernst Mach. Moving away from previous estimations of Mach as a pre-logical positivist, the essays reflect his rehabilitation as a thinker of direct relevance to debates in the contemporary philosophies of natural science, psychology, metaphysics, and mind. Topics covered include Mach’s work on acoustical psychophysics and physics; his ideas on analogy and the principle of conservation of energy; the correct interpretation of his scheme of ‘elements’ and its relationship to his ‘historical-critical’ method; the relationship of his thought to movements such as American pragmatism, realism, and neutral monism, as well as to contemporary figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche; and the reception and influence of his works in Germany and Austria, particularly by the Vienna Circle.

Table of Contents
Introduction: A New Mach for a New Millennium John Preston

  1. Ernst Mach’s Piano and the Making of a Psychophysical Imaginarium Alexandra Hui
  2. Mother’s Milk, and More: On the Role of Ernst Mach’s Relational Physics in the Development of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Richard Staley
  3. Meaningful Work: Ernst Mach on Energy Conservation Daan Wegener
  4. Mach on Analogy in Science S. G. Sterrett
  5. Ernst Mach’s Enlightenment Pragmatism: History and Economy in Scientific Cognition Thomas Uebel
  6. On the Philosophical and Scientific Relationship between Ernst Mach and William James Alexander Klein
  7. Ernst Mach and Friedrich Nietzsche: On the Prejudices of Scientists Pietro Gori
  8. Abstraction, Pragmatism, and History in Mach’s Economy of Science Lydia Patton
  9. Holding the Hand of History: Mach on the History of Science, the Analysis of Sensations, and the Economy of Thought Luca Guzzardi
  10. Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle: A Re-evaluation of the Reception and Influence of his Work Friedrich Stadler
  11. Narratives Divided: The Austrian and the German Mach Michael Stöltzner
  12. Phenomenalism, or Neutral Monism, in Mach’s Analysis of Sensations? John Preston
  13. The Case for Mach’s Neutral Monism Erik C. Banks.

About Jacy Young

Jacy Young is a professor at Quest University Canada. A critical feminist psychologist and historian of psychology, she is committed to critical pedagogy and public engagement with feminist psychology and the history of the discipline.