Ernst Mach and positivism

Ernst Mach is one of the key figures of positivism, considering himself an extreme positivist since he always maintained that conclusions could only be drawn from what could be directly perceived. At unProfesor.com we delve deeper into Mach's positivism and thought.

Ernst Mach (1838-1916) is considered one of the philosophers who contributed the most to the development of epistemology and the philosophy of science. A thinker, physicist and historian of science, who was greatly influenced by positivism, a philosophical current that emphasizes the importance of observation and experimentation to acquire knowledge. In this lesson of unPROFESOR.com we talk about Ernst Mach and positivism.

Ernst Mach He had a great influence on figures like Einstein, a scientist who considered that Mach was the one who had really laid the foundations for the study of relativity and how science should be. Thus, his ideas and works had a great impact on both philosophy and theoretical physics, playing a key role in the transition from classical to modern physics.

Between his main contributions to philosophy stand out:

• Mach's thought was very influential in the development of logical positivism and in the Vienna Circle, a group of philosophers who promoted a scientific and empiricist view of philosophy. For Mach, science should be based on experience and that scientific theories must be related to concrete observations and measurements.
• He was also very critical of scientific realism, a current that maintains that scientific theories must be interpreted as true descriptions of reality. Instead, Mach argued that scientific theories were useful tools for organizing and predict experience, but should not be taken as accurate representations of a reality objective.
• Mach also performed important research in the field of optics, particularly in relation to visual perception and the speed of sound. The so-called "Mach effect" refers to how fast-moving objects can affect visual perception, especially when it comes to image formation.
• Another of his contributions is the so-called Mach number or measure of the speed of an object in relation to the speed of sound in that same medium. A number that is fundamental in aerodynamics and in the description of phenomena related to the compression of waves in gases at high speeds.
• And, although he did not develop it, Mach's ideas about perception and the relativity of motion influenced him. Albert Einstein while he developed his theory of relativity.

He positivism is a philosophical and scientific stream which arose in the 19th century, and was founded by the French philosopher auguste comte, being his main ideas the empirical observation and the application ofscientific method to understand the natural and social world.

For Mach, science should be based solely on observable and measurable facts. and that any scientific theory must be empirically verifiable, without metaphysical speculations, rejecting all those theories that could not be subjected to an experimental test. Furthermore, for this positivist philosopher, scientific knowledge had to be built collectively, that is, thanks to the work of a scientific community. All scientific theories are provisional and are subject to revision and modification as new data emerges.

Mach was a defender of positivism in the philosophy of science, defending an empirical approach in the acquisition of knowledge. His ideas were also highly influential in epistemology and sensory perception. In his work "Mechanics", Mach established the foundations of the theory of relativity, influencing Albert Einstein, while his book "Analysis of sensations", contributed to the study of sensory perception. In it he established that the experiences we perceive do not constitute an exact representation of external reality, but subjective constructions based on our sensations.

Mach, under the influence of the phenomenalism of Hume and Berkeley, opted for a positivist, empiricist and anti-metaphysical philosophy, called "sensationalism" for considering that the ultimate unit of knowledge is the "sensation", a concept equivalent to "idea" or "impression". The sciences have to be unified by having sensations as their object, concepts such as cause or substance disappearing as they do not correspond to any sensation. Science has to save experiences, anticipating them. A subjective model that was highly criticized by politicians like Lenin.

Finally, Mach was one of the members and inspiration of the Vienna Circle, a group of scientists and philosophers who advocated a scientific conception of the world, defending the empiricism of Hume and Locke, the inductive method, the unification of the language of science and the removal of metaphysics from the realm of science. Until the manifesto of 1929, the Vienna Circle was known as the Ernt Mach Association, going back to 1907 and the private meetings that Philipp Frank, Otto Neurath and Hans Hahn held every Tuesday in order to discuss problems of character epistemological. Some meetings held under the influence of Mach's positivism and his critical attitude towards metaphysics.