We meet fortnightly on Mondays at 10am in the Board Room.
Organised by Hasok Chang, Neil Dewar and Richard Staley.
Michaelmas Term 2025
This term we focus on the work of Ernst Mach and the recent scholarship that has developed new interpretations of this significant critic of Newtonian mechanics, prominent early positivist, and foundational scholar in history and philosophy of science. Each meeting we'll pair aspects of Mach's work that display the evolution of his work and interrelations between research in psychophysics and physics with examples of recent philosophical and historical scholarship, inviting participants to help shape our agenda through the term by selecting work they'd like to discuss from two recent volumes edited by John Preston and Friedrich Stadler:
- John Preston, ed. Interpreting Mach: Critical Issues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).
- Friedrich Stadler, ed. Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019).
Which of the many individual contributions would you like to discuss in company?
20 October
In this meeting we introduce Mach's first general argument against the mechanical world view, incorporating his earliest formations of an operational definition of mass, and key critiques of Newton's law of inertia, and discuss John Preston's account of Mach.
- Ernst Mach, History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy, translated by Philip E. B. Jourdain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), sections I and II, pp. 1–41 (and make sure you read the relevant author's notes).
- John Preston, 'Introduction: A New Mach for a New Millennium', in Interpreting Mach: Critical Essays, edited by John Preston (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 1–9 provides an accessible, brief overview of Mach's work and influence.
3 November
In this meeting we discuss the last two sections on mechanical physics and Mach's argument that the logical root of the theorem of excluded perpetual motion predates the mechanical view.
- Ernst Mach, History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy, translated by Philip E. B. Jourdain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), sections III and IV, pp. 42–74 (and the relevant notes).
- Selected reading.
17 November
In this meeting we consider Mach's primary presentation of his work in psychophysics and his account of the relations between physics, physiology and psychology.
- Ernst Mach, Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations (The Open Court Publishing Company, 1897 [1886]), focusing on 'Introductory Remarks: Antimetaphysical', pp. 1–26 and 'The Chief Points of View for the Investigation of the Senses' pp. 27–40.
- Selected reading.
1 December
Here we study the two sections of Mach's well-known historico-critical study of mechanics on which most commentators have focused (following the lead of Albert Einstein), Mach's critique of Newton's concepts of absolute space and time.
- Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Exposition of Its Principles, translated by Thomas J. McCormack (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), ch 2, sections VI and VII, pp. 222–245.
- Selected reading.