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CHAPTER ! 3

World Influence: Philosophy

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In July 1898, a fcw days after Mach’s strokc, which paralyzed ihc right sidc of his body, hc began to usc a typewriter with his lcft hand.¹ Age, immobility, dcafncss, slurrcd speech, rheumatism (1903). ncural-gia (1906), and prostatę infcction (1912) failed to prcvcnt a most re-markablc willed comeback.² He could not dress, so his wifc clothed him.³ He could not write, so he typed. Hc could not expcriment, so his son Ludwig experimented for him. He couid not walk, so he uscd a cane and cvcn an ambulancc when necessary.⁴ Mach was a prolific writer bcforc his paralysis and with efTort and prolonged determina-tion he gradually returned to being a prolific writer. He dcprecatcd his own production, but for a normal person it was still immense. He started slowly, but after his oflicial retirement from the Univcrsity of Vicnna in 1901 he took up his challcngcs again, met them liead on, and mastered most of them.

Mach thought about spending his last years in Florcnce wherc hc could converse with Franz Brentano and John Bernard Stallo.⁵ He had only recently (1897) bccome acquaintcd with Stallo’s ideas, but was impressed by the eloseness in their points of view and by the fact that this then obscure Gcrman-Amcrican philosopher had anticipated many of Mach’s own ideas.⁰ Shortly after Stallo’s dcath in 1900, Mach can* celed his Italian retirement plans.

In carly 1901, after having refuscd a title of nobility, Mach acccptcd an appointmcnt from the Empcror to the Austrian Upper Mouse.⁷ Hc rarely attended sessions and madę only one rccorded speech, but hc

did come to votc on major social and economic issucs whcn the out-comc was in doubt.⁸

From 1900 to 1913 Mach reviscd his Analysis of Scnsations (dou-bling it in sizc), dclctcd and added chaptcrs to his Science of Mechan-ics. added clcvcn chaptcrs to the German edition of his Popular Ścierń li fic Leciures (1910), put his philosophy of science lcctures together into a ncw book, Knowledge and Error (1905), finished the first half of his Principles of Physical Oplics (1913), the only part to be pub-lished, and gathered matcrials for his last book, Culture and Mechanics

(19*5)*

He also published morc than a dozen ncw articlcs on philosophy, popular science, and on his expcrimcntal work. His two most impor-tant philosophical articlcs wcrc both lengthy and wcrc published together in book form in 1919.*°

In addition to all this autumnal cncrgy and accomplishment, Mach wrotc forewords to morę than a dozen books, kept up a large corre-spondcncc, and defended his ideas in special chapters appcndcd to ncw cditions of older works.

The first dccadc of the twentieth ccntury witnessed a simultaneous rise both in Mach’s world influence and iu the cxtent and ferority of published opposition to his phenomenalism and philosophy of science. The most import3nt attacks arc covercd in the ncxt two chaptcrs. Be-low is a list (using abbrcviatcd titlcs) rclcvant to understanding the spread and high period of Mach’s direct philosophical influence.

New cditions and translations

1900    PW (2d cd.), Analyse (ad ed.)

1901    Mechanik (^th ed.), PSL (Russian, ist ed.)

1902    Analyse ($dcd.)> SOM (American, ad ed.)

1903    Analyse (4th cd.), PWV (3d ed.), AOS (ltalian. ist ed.)

1904 M cc han i (5th ed.), SOM (French, ist ed.), .-105 (Russian, ist ed.)

1905    E & I (ist ed.)

1906    E & l (ad cd.), Analyse (^th ed.), S & G (American, ist cd.)

1907    SOM (American, }d ed.), AOS (Russian, ad ed.)

1908    Mechanik (6th ed.), E & I (French, ist cd.), SOM (ltalian, ist ed.), AOS (Russian, 3cl cd.), SOM (Russian, ist ed.)

1909    EDA (ad ech), COE (Russian, tst ed.). SOM (Russian, ad ed.), PSL (Russian, ad cd.), E & l (Russian, ist cd.)

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