Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T21:38:26.750Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Ernst Mach and Friedrich Nietzsche

On the Prejudices of Scientists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2021

By
Pietro Gori
Edited by
John Preston
John Preston
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Get access

Summary

The aim of this chapter is to provide a thorough account of the fact that Ernst Mach and Friedrich Nietzsche are often associated with each other in the specialised literature on the history of philosophy and the philosophy of science. I argue that the consistency which can be discovered between them is much more substantial than one may imagine. On the basis of their conception of knowledge and truth, it is possible to outline a complete parallelism between their approach to the issue concerning our intellectual relationship with the external world. In fact, Mach and Nietzsche dealt with the very same questions and indeed pursued a common general aim, namely the elimination of worn-out conceptions from the world of modern culture. Furthermore, I will maintain that Mach’s and Nietzsche’s research interests converge on the classic problem of realism versus anti-realism, and that it is in the light of this particular issue that their own views can be compared.

Keywords

Ernst MachRealismPhenomenalismPerspectivismScientific knowledge
Type
Chapter
Information
Interpreting Mach
Critical Essays
 , pp. 123 - 141
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, R. Lanier 1996. ‘Overcoming Charity: The Case of Clark’s Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy’, Nietzsche-Studien 25: 307–341.Google Scholar
Baatz, Ursula 1997. ‘Ernst Mach and the World of Sensations’, in Bronner, S. E. and Wagner, P. F. (eds.), Vienna: The World of Yesterday, 1889–1914. Humanities Press, pp. 82–92.Google Scholar
Babich, Babette and Cohen, Robert S. 1999. Nietzsche and the Sciences, 2 vol. Kluwer.Google Scholar
Banks, Erik C. 2003. Ernst Mach’s World Elements: A Study in Natural Philosophy. Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banks, Erik C. 2004. ‘The Philosophical Roots of Ernst Mach’s Economy of Thought’, Synthese 139: 23–53.Google Scholar
Banks, Erik C. 2014. The Realistic Empiricism of Mach, James, and Russell: Neutral Monism Reconceived. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bayertz, Kurt, Gerhard, Myriam, and Jaeschke, Walter (eds.) 2007. Weltanschauung, Philosophie und Naturwissenschaft im 19. Jahrhundert. Vol. 3: Der Ignorabimus-streit. Meiner.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard 1983. Beyond Objectivism and Relativism. Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Brobjer, Thomas and Moore, Gregory (eds.) 2004. Nietzsche and Science. Ashgate.Google Scholar
Clark, Maudemarie 1990. Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Robert S. 1970. ‘Ernst Mach: Physics, Perception and the Philosophy of Science’, in Cohen, Robert S., and Seeger, Raymond J. (eds.), Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher. D. Reidel, pp. 126–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einstein, Albert 1992. ‘Ernst Mach’, in Blackmore, J. T. (ed.), Ernst Mach – A Deeper Look: Documents and New Perspectives. Kluwer, pp. 154-159.Google Scholar
Eisler, Rudolf 1902. Nietzsches Erkenntnistheorie und Metaphysik. Haake.Google Scholar
Emden, Christian 2014. Nietzsche’s Naturalism: Philosophy and the Life Sciences in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Philipp 1970. ‘The Importance of Ernst Mach’s Philosophy of Science for Our Times’, in Cohen, Robert S., and Seeger, Raymond J. (eds.), Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher. D. Reidel, pp. 219–234.Google Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2011. ‘Drei Briefe von Hans Kleinpeter an Ernst Mach über Nietzsche’, Nietzsche-Studien 40: 290–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2014. ‘Nietzsche and Mechanism. On the Use of History for Science’, in Heit, Helmut and Heller, Lisa (eds.), Handbuch Nietzsche und die Wissenschaften. De Gruyter, pp. 119–137.Google Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2015. ‘Psychology without a Soul, Philosophy without an I. Nietzsche and 19th Century Psychophysics (Fechner, Lange, Mach)’, in Constâncio, J., Mayer Branco, M. J., and Ryan, B. (eds.), Nietzsche and the Problem of Subjectivity. De Gruyter, pp. 166–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2017. ‘On Nietzsche’s Criticism towards Common Sense Realism in Human, All Too Human I, 11’, Philosophical Readings 9: 207–213.Google Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2018. ‘Ernst Mach and Pragmatic Realism’, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 74: 151–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2019a. Nietzsche’s Pragmatism. A Study on Perspectival Thought, Eng. trans. De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2019b. ‘Nietzsche’s Fictional Realism: A Historico-Theoretical Approach’, Estetica. Studi e Ricerche 9: 167–181.Google Scholar
Gori, Pietro 2019c. ‘What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Science? On Ernst Mach’s Pragmatic Epistemology’, in Stadler, F. (ed.), Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence (Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook). Springer, pp. 525–536.Google Scholar
Gori, Pietro forthcoming. ‘Ernst Mach. Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (1886)’, Studia Nietzscheana / nietzschesource.orgGoogle Scholar
Green, Michael S. 2002. Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition. University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Heit, Helmut, Abel, Günter, and Brusotti, Marco (eds.) 2012. Nietzsches Wissenschaftsphilosophie. De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Heit, Helmut and Heller, Lisa (eds.) 2014. Handbuch Nietzsche und die Wissenschaften. De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hesse, Mary B. 1972. ‘In Defence of Objectivity’, Proceedings of the British Academy 57: 275–292.Google Scholar
Hiebert, Erwin N. 1976. ‘Introduction’, in Mach, Ernst, Knowledge and Error. Sketches on the Psychology of Enquiry. D. Reidel, pp. xi–xxxviii.Google Scholar
Holton, Gerald 1992. ‘Ernst Mach and the Fortunes of Positivism in America’, Isis 83: 27–60.Google Scholar
Hussain, Nadeem 2004a. ‘Nietzsche’s Positivism’, European Journal of Philosophy 12: 326–368.Google Scholar
Hussain, Nadeem 2004b. ‘Reading Nietzsche through Ernst Mach’, in Brobjer, Thomas and Moore, Gregory (eds.), Nietzsche and Science. Ashgate, pp. 111–129.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 1998. Critique of Pure Reason, Eng. trans. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinpeter, Hans 1912. ‘Der Pragmatismus im Lichte der Machschen Erkenntnislehre’, Wissenschaftliche Rundschau 20: 405–407.Google Scholar
Kleinpeter, Hans 1912/1913. ‘Die Erkenntnislehre Friedrich Nietzsches’, Wissenschaftliche Rundschau 3: 5–9.Google Scholar
Kleinpeter, Hans 1913. Der Phänomenalismus. Eine naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung. J. A. Barth.Google Scholar
Leiter, Brian 2002. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Nietzsche on Morality. Routledge.Google Scholar
Mach, Ernst 1897. Popular Scientific Lectures. Open Court.Google Scholar
Mach, Ernst 1911. History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy. Open Court.Google Scholar
Mach, Ernst 1919. The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of its Development. Open Court.Google Scholar
Mach, Ernst 1959. The Analysis of Sensations. Dover.Google Scholar
Mach, Ernst 1976. Knowledge and Error. Sketches on the Psychology of Enquiry. D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Mach, Ernst 1992. ‘Sensory Elements and Scientific Concepts’, in Blackmore, J. T. (ed.), Ernst Mach – A Deeper Look: Documents and New Perspectives. Kluwer, pp. 118–126.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1980. Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe in 15 Bänden. Eds. Colli, G. and Montinari, M.. DTV/De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1996. Human, All Too Human. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1999. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 2001. The Gay Science. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 2002. Beyond Good and Evil. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 2003. Writings from the Late Notebooks. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 2005. The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Remhof, Justin 2015. ‘Nietzsche’s Conception of Truth: Correspondence, Coherence, or Pragmatist?’, Journal of Nietzsche Studies 46: 229–238.Google Scholar
Pihlström, Sami 2008. Pragmatist Metaphysics. Continuum.Google Scholar
Stack, George 1983. Nietzsche and Lange. De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Stegmaier, Werner 2012. Nietzsches Befreiung der Philosophie. De Gruyter.Google Scholar
von Mises, Richard 1970. ‘Ernst Mach and the Empiricist Conception of Science’, in Cohen, Robert S., and Seeger, Raymond J. (eds.), Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher. D. Reidel, pp. 245–270.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×