Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Hermann von Helmholtz’s Mechanism: The Loss of Certainty

A Study on the Transition from Classical to Modern Philosophy of Nature

  • Book
  • © 2009

Overview

Editors:
  1. Gregor Schiemann

    1. Philosophisches Seminar Bergische Universität, Wuppertal, Germany

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • First English comprehensive contribution to one of the leading German physicists in the 19th century
  • An informative account of a highly important part of the history of science and a reconstruction of a conception of science that is greatly widespread to this day
  • Profound analysis of the interaction between classical physics and philosophy of nature
  • New insights into the impact of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of science and metaphysics of nature on the philosophy of physics

Part of the book series: Archimedes (ARIM, volume 17)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Mechanism Between the Classical and the Modern Conception of Science

    1. Introduction

      Pages 1-11

    2. The Conception of Mechanism

      Pages 15-22

    3. The Classical Conception of Science

      Pages 23-31

    4. Three Traditions in Mechanism

      Pages 33-41

    5. Contours of Modern Philosophy of Nature

      Pages 43-54

  4. Back Matter

    Pages 249-283
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Focusing on Hermann von Helmholtz, this study addresses one of the nineteenth century’s most important German natural scientists. Among his most well-known contributions to science are the invention of the ophthalmoscope and grou- breaking work towards formulating the law of the conservation of energy. The volume of his work, reaching from medicine to physiology to physics and epis- mology, his impact on the development of the sciences far beyond German borders, and the contribution he made to the organization and popularization of research, all established Helmholtz’s prominence both in the academic world and in public cultural life. Helmholtz was also one of the last representatives of a conception of nature that strove to reduce all phenomena to matter in motion. In reaction to the increasingly insurmountable difficulties that program had in fulfilling its own standards for s- entific explanation, he developed elements of a modern understanding of science that have remained of fundamental importance to this day.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Philosophisches Seminar Bergische Universität, Wuppertal, Germany

    Gregor Schiemann

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation