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2 - Mother’s Milk and More

On the Role of Ernst Mach’s Relational Physics in the Development of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2021

By
Richard Staley
Edited by
John Preston
John Preston
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Summary

This chapter examines the changing relations between Mach’s epistemology and his mechanics to offer a new perspective on the diverse respects in which Einstein built on Mach’s work. Considering Mach’s early psychophysical research on sensations of space and time indicates foundations both for Mach’s later research on physical space and time and for his search for an epistemology capable of encompassing conceptions and perceptual experience, but also psychology, physics, and psychophysics, as well as the social world: all knowledge. I show that Mach’s critical studies of mass and inertia emerged from his perceptual studies and were intimately linked to bodily experience and experiment. Considering his well-known Mechanics indicates that Mach sought to train the imagination as well as stimulate critique in the attacks on absolutes that are now usually taken to define his anti-metaphysical empiricism. I argue that while celebrating the role of Mach’s criticism, Einstein remained unaware of the extent to which his initial approach to general relativity was shaped by a pedagogical thought experiment on action and reaction in which Mach linked gravitation and acceleration. Finally, when he turned explicitly to epistemology, rather than emphasising positivist empiricism, Mach offered a study of the psychology of research in practice.

Keywords

Ernst MachPsychophysicsMechanicsRelativityAlbert EinsteinThought experimentsPositivism
Type
Chapter
Information
Interpreting Mach
Critical Essays
 , pp. 28 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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