Mach has repeatedly declared that he is a scientist rather than a philosopher, and even doesn't want to be called a philosopher. However, because he doesn't want to blindly entrust himself to a single philosopher for guidance, and because he strongly needs to speculate on the process of acquiring and expanding his knowledge in other countries, he is still extremely interested in philosophy adjacent to his professional field. However, as he himself said, he only roamed in some of these fields, especially in the field of philosophy, as a "weekend athlete". As a result of these wanderings, many of his works on the history and philosophy of science have been formed, such as History and Roots of the Law of Conservation of Energy (1872), Review of history of mechanics (1883), Analysis of Feeling (1886) and Lecture on Popular Science (/kloc). These works have a wide range of topics, profound insights, keen thinking and far-reaching influence, leaving an indelible mark and a glorious page in the history of science and philosophy.
Compared with the general works on the history of science, Mach's research on the history of science has very distinct characteristics. First, it is not the history of blocking cases and chronicles, but the history of ideological development. Second, not for the sake of history, but to get rid of prejudice, enlighten thoughts, find problems and find new ways; In short, in order to understand the current science and inspire scientists to overcome the current problems. Third, it is not the history of Whigs, but the evolutionary history of scientific thought. Fourth, it is the perfect combination of documentary history and intuitive history.
As Shrek said, "A philosopher who doesn't ask to be a philosopher is not the last person who deserves to be a philosopher. ..... History has made an evaluation: Mach is actually both a scientist and a philosopher, and his position in the history of philosophy has been quite clearly determined by history. " However, Mach is not a philosopher in the traditional sense, but a philosopher or philosopher scientist as a scientist. His philosophy is not a systematic philosophy of speculative philosophers who have special terms (or invented terms) and have nothing to do with science, but a scientific philosophy of scientists (please note: it is different from philosophers' scientific philosophy), that is, a scientific philosophy closely related to the basic problems of science, which is loved by scientists and can be inspired by them. History has shown time and again that it is the thinking achievements of these philosophers and scientists who rarely enter the textbooks of philosophy history that have greatly promoted the process of human thought and become road signs in the history of thought.
Mach moved from science to philosophy of science through the history of science, and his philosophical thought was born and refined from science, which in itself determined its originality and novelty. However, Mach also absorbed many philosophers and scientists (Becquerel, Hume, Kant, Lichtenberg, Herbart, Fechner, Darwin, etc. ) and many philosophical schools when he formed his own philosophy. In addition, the external conditions given by empirical facts do not allow him to stick to an epistemological system too much, and the problems he faces force him to take care of from various angles, so he has to adopt an effective "opportunistic" view when constructing his own philosophy. In view of this reality, those "philosophical conjectures" who only start from their own systems, those "philosophical dreamers" who grasp a few words and give full play to their extension, those "philosophical tailors" who just cobble together a few words at random, and those "philosophical revolutionaries" who are inspired by revolutionary hatred and fighting passion often label Mach with various colors according to their own "professional" characteristics, environmental climate and emotions. This simplification, vulgarization and politicization is not a philosophical study at all!
Although Mach philosophy-Mach said: "Especially there is no Mach philosophy, there are only scientific methodology and cognitive psychology at most. Like all scientific theories, they are tentative and imperfect attempts." -there is no complete system and self-created terminology, but as long as you study his original works carefully and think calmly, its structure and context are still clear and identifiable. The goal of Mach's philosophy is clear, that is, to study epistemology from speculative and vague philosophical discussion to scientific level. Therefore, he established his philosophy on the basis of element monism (broad sense) or feeling monism (narrow sense), and his theme naturally fell into the category of feeling empiricism. Associated with this goal, the characteristics of Mach's philosophy are fully manifested in his evolutionary epistemology and the principle of thinking economy. All this in turn affects the general intention of Mach's philosophy to oppose metaphysics and unify science, as well as the foundation and theme of Mach's philosophy. Needless to say, as a philosopher and scientist, the noumenon of Mach's philosophy is scientific methodology and inquiry psychology, but his profound humanistic spirit and strong sense of social responsibility drive him to roam in social science and humanities, thus forming a side branch of Mach's philosophy-the combination of social philosophy and humanism and naturalism. Mach's philosophy is not static knowledge and rigid dogma, but dynamic wisdom and vivid meditation philosophy, thus showing realistic and unique spiritual temperament. Mach's philosophy seems to be a tree of philosophy-a tree of wisdom and culture that rises from the ground and has lush foliage! Some people arbitrarily claim that Mach's philosophy is "a hodgepodge" and "just a bunch of contradictory and unrelated epistemological propositions", which only shows that he has not seriously studied and grasped Mach's philosophy.
Mach's main philosophical thoughts are elemental monism and sensory empiricism. The word "factor" is the core concept of factor monism. Although Mach tried to endow the element with primitive status, he didn't think it was final and omnipotent. His aim is to eliminate the man-made absolute opposition between the dualism of mind and matter-self and the world, spirit and matter, subject and object, attribute and entity-and unify physics, physiology and psychology. Mach endows the feeling with the lofty position of epistemology, puts the feeling at the starting point (the only source) and the end point (the final test) of scientific understanding, and limits the object of scientific understanding to the feeling world-Mach's so-called feeling seems to be an "experience atom". Therefore, Mach's empiricism can be called sensory empiricism or sensory empiricism, which is characterized by positivism, phenomenology, operation, instrumentalism, theory of description, expressionism and pragmatism. However, it must be recognized that Mach's empiricism, though radical and thorough, is not narrow and extreme. The reasons are as follows: Mach's dominant philosophy contains anti-empiricism, namely rationalism; The factors of non-empirical conventionalism are eliminated; Have strong reservations about empirical methodology, that is, induction; He defended the abstraction of science many times, emphasizing the great role of universal concepts and mathematical generalization in science; Attach great importance to, admire and praise ideas and concepts; When discussing specific problems and relationships, we should pay attention to maintaining the necessary tension at the opposite poles, rather than fixing it at the empirical pole; Mach himself is also opposed to classifying his philosophy as extreme or narrow empiricism. Mach's radical or thorough empiricism at that time was not unreasonable, even reasonable to some extent: it was not only his need to resist neo-Kant's transcendentalism and Hegel's speculative natural philosophy, but also his requirement to oppose mechanical mythology (mechanical transcendentalism and mechanical natural view). In addition, Mach's philosophy is not so-called "subjective idealism", "solipsism" and "eclecticism".
The economic principle of thinking is an important principle of Mach's philosophy, which covers a wide range, rich in content, profound in meaning and subtle in essence. Maybe it belongs to "before me, where was the lost time?" Behind me, where is the next generation? " . No wonder Faye Abend thinks it is "a fruitful beginning of a theory in the history of knowledge progress". According to Blackmar's research and classification, Mach principle generally includes the following meanings: economy of thinking, economy of energy, economy of work and time, economy of methodology, economy of mathematical simplicity, economy of abbreviation, economy of abstraction, economy of incomplete logic, economy of ontology, economy of no language in nature. The spiritual essence of the principle of thinking economy lies in that it is the purpose of science, the principle of methodology, the rational standard for evaluating scientific theories, the weapon against metaphysics, and the bioeconomics of knowledge (cognition). It is an ignorant misunderstanding or intentional misinterpretation to regard the economic principle of thinking as subjective, transcendental and superficial, and to think that it requires people to stop thinking and imagine at will.
In terms of scientific methodology and inquiry psychology, Mach put forward methodological principles such as reality principle, continuity principle, full differentiation principle, eternity principle and concept evolution principle, discussed scientific discovery methods such as analogy (similarity), hypothesis, thinking experiment, intuition, fantasy and aesthetics, and also discussed motivation, feeling, memory, association, concept, concept, abstraction, consciousness, will and intention, thinking and aesthetics.
Mach is a veritable and deserved pioneer of evolutionary epistemology and naturalism. In Mach's view, the world or nature is a natural unified whole; It is a biological reaction phenomenon that thoughts adapt to facts and thoughts adapt to each other. Science is a biological and organic phenomenon; Life is not a "whiteboard", but a product of biological evolution with natural tendencies and "ideas". All knowledge and theories are wrong, tentative and incomplete, and their formation is accidental. Mach's philosophy and scientific outlook have a strong naturalistic tendency. Mach's distinctive and original evolutionary epistemology is not only the concrete application and embodiment of naturalism in epistemology and science, but also evolutionary naturalism. Naturalism can also be said to be Mach's down-to-earth attitude and method towards the world (including man, man-made society and the most systematic knowledge system-science).
Mach is not an expert with narrow vision and a scholar locked in his study, but a scientist with humanistic spirit and a thinker with scientific and rational spirit. He is a great warrior who is realistic and brave in social exploration and practice. He firmly believes that science and technology can promote civilization, he is full of confidence in social progress and human self-improvement, he cares about the future and destiny of mankind, he loves truth and justice, and he supports peace and opposes war. In a word, he is passionate about truth, goodness and beauty, and frowns at falsehood, evil and ugliness. The highest purpose of Mach's humanitarianism is that he regards the interests of all mankind above everything else, advocates social justice and equality, calls on members of society to help and love each other, and opposes egoism under the principle of individual freedom. Mach even extended the humanitarian spirit to the whole organic and inorganic fields, and issued the forerunner of contemporary ecological ethics. Mach persisted in opposing power and violence and supporting justice and peace all his life. He was a devout pacifist. He has always been negative and opposed to militarism, nationalism, anti-Semitism and class prejudice, and has not been infected by the times like most intellectuals in Germany and Austria. -National fanaticism? The core idea of Mach's scientism is to believe that science is an important symbol of civilized society and that science has magical power, which can promote the progress of social civilization and bring happiness to every member of society without asking for anything in return. However, he was not intoxicated by the scientific triumph and generous blessing. At that time, he clearly realized the other side of the coin: improper or improper use of science will also bring negative effects, such as environmental pollution and resource depletion. However, he believes that "mankind will gain the wisdom of the times" and will reduce and prevent the related drawbacks with the increasingly perfect "social and cultural technology" and more developed science. Mach's atheism and educational thoughts also contain many enlightening instructions.
Mach's philosophy (or, in a broad sense, Mach's thought) is not only a collection of rich and insightful thoughts, but also permeated with Mach's distinctive spiritual temperament. They are: enlightenment and freedom, doubt and criticism, history and practice, harmony and tolerance, humility and progress? In the language of Schrick's Philosophy of Youth, Mach's life is a life of "youth", and his enthusiasm for knowledge and career "burns the same flame and brilliance" as "youth enthusiasm".
Mach is the leader of critical school (members of this school include Poincare, Dion, Osvath and Pearson). The philosophy of science of the critical school played an important role in the physics revolution at the turn of the 9th and 20th centuries, the formation of the Vienna Group at the beginning of this century and the vigorous development of logical empiricism in the 1920s, among which Mach played a major role. Mach is Einstein's enlightener and mentor, the originator of Vienna School and the godfather of logical empiricism. Today, Mach's philosophy has not completely escaped into the ancient and profound classical kingdom and become an exhibit in the history museum. His keen vision, profound insight, magnanimity and charming charm will still shine in the coming 2 1 century.
The Origin of Understanding and Fallacy-An Outline of Inquiry Psychology (also translated as Knowledge and Errors) is as follows:1895/1In the winter of 896, Mach opened a course of Inquiry Psychology and Logic, trying to reduce inquiry psychology to a simple concept for science as much as possible. Later, Mach handled the selected materials freely, making the psychology of epistemology and the methodology of natural science the backbone of the book. It can be said that this book is the intellectual crystallization of Mach's forty years of teaching and experimental research as a simple observer who got rid of any system. The title of this book is borrowed from the seventh chapter of this book. In this chapter, he discusses how to distinguish knowledge and mistakes from the same psychological source only according to the experience results in a specific environment; Errors, like knowledge, are also corrections that promote cognition.
Cognition and Fallacy was first published in Leipzig in 1905 and sold out in less than a year. The following year, the second edition came out, which was not substantially different from the first edition, and Mach did not have the opportunity to make fundamental changes. 19 16 After Mach's death, this book came out in three editions (19 17, 1920 and 1926), which are almost the same as the second edition. According to Mach's son Ludwig, the third edition only includes his father's corrections at the edge of the page. Cognition and Fallacy was at least partially translated into French (1908), Russian (1909) and Turkish (1925), but it was not until 70 years later that it was translated into English (1976). The English version was translated by the fifth edition of German (1926), and the Chinese version was translated from this English version.
Cognition and Fallacy is the clearest, most concentrated, most comprehensive and mature exposition of Mach's scientific epistemology and methodology, and it is an innovative volume of Mach's philosophy of science. Mach hopes that "this will inspire young colleagues, especially physicists, to further reflect and attract their attention to some adjacent fields, which are often ignored, but these fields provide many clarifications about his own thinking to any explorer." When he sent the newly published book to william james, James wrote back and said, "Your cognition and fallacy filled me with joy-when I have access to it, I will read it greedily." Hibbert, an American historian of science, commented on the book, saying: "The views encountered in these articles always leave the following impression on readers: Mach is knowledgeable, profound, valuable and sensitive to first-hand experiments, and of course, his outstanding, humorous and critical temperament, ... scientific insight, rich and pertinent aphorisms, and disregard for customs and authority."
I think readers who read Cognition and Fallacy will feel the same way. This book shines with pearls of thought from time to time. For example, Mach has repeatedly stressed that scientific theory is tentative and imperfect, and the result is still problematic, which needs to be corrected or corrected through research and experience; Any observation is influenced by theory; Some people's mistakes are often more rewarding in results than others' discoveries, and so on. In particular, Mach's assertion is even more shocking: whether a scientist's thoughts conform to a given philosophical system is completely secondary, as long as he can take them as the starting point of research; Do not seek the fundamental doctrine of salvation, let alone the only doctrine; ..... As for the specific content of each chapter, I won't make redundant comments. I believe that readers will have different views and have their own tastes.
This translation started at the end of June of 1998 and is usually completed by the end of the year. Except for some temporary tasks, it took four months. At the end of the century, social trends and fashions are changing with each passing day, and extra money and fame are always attractive. In academic and ideological circles, things like Huang Zhong's downfall and Waffleming are not uncommon. Real scholars are weak and can only be independent. Because they know that the unbearable lightness in life is the desolation of the soul and the pallor of the spirit; Because they understand that fame is short-lived, politics is temporary, while thoughts are long-lasting and logic is eternal. That's it, is there?