IMG15

Prefaee

has bccomc an issuc of major proportions, but frankly, as undcrstood in modern discussions ii has vcry littlc to do willi Mach’s original con-ception. Even moro spurious arc philosophical uses of i his term and the so-callcd Mach critcrion, both of which curiously relate Mach’s vievvs to the hypothcsis-dcduction-vcrific3tion approach to science which Mach firmly rcjccicd!

In light of Joachim Thielc’s rćmarkable bibliography of Ernst Mach's Works (over 400 entries), and in vicw of my own spacc problcms I havc dccided not to attempt an cxhaustivc bibliography, but instead to com-plcmcnt Thiclc’s list by providing a select, not a complctc, bibliography. I refer to evcry sourcc rcad on Mach which has substantially aidcd the writing of the original dissertation and this published vcrsion, not to cvcry sourcc uscd, much less to cvcry sourcc peruscd or known.

A sccond point of clarification concerns the use of publication titlcs in the main text. Since some readers may not know German or other langunges I havc tried to put in English all book titles that appear in the main body of the work. Important books and articlcs on Mach arc also given in the original language of publication in the footnotes, bibliography, or both.

I am dccply indebted to many individual$ and institutions for help-ing mc to improvc the cjuality of this book.

I would likc to acknowlcdge, abovc all, the advicc and assistance of my parents, Brigadier General and Mrs. P. G. Blackmorc, my doctoral advisor Dean John G. Burkę, and Professor Emcritus Otto Bliih. With-out them this book would never have becn written.

I wish to acknowlcdge the rcceipt, usc, and valuc of a National Science Foundation Grant for archivc rcscarch in Europę. Without that opportunity it would havc becn very difłicult or impossiblc for me to rcly heavily on primary sourcc materiał.

I also wish to cxprcss my apprcciation to the other members of my doctoral board who kindly and wiscly adviscd mc on what to add and dcletc from my original manuscript: Profcssors Truesdell Brown, Raymond Fishcr, Francis Crowlcy, and Wadę Savage.

J would likc to acknowlcdge the indispcnsablc cooperation of Ernst Mach's !iving relations, in particular, Frau Anna Karma Mach and Dr. Ernst Anton Lcdcrcr. Their kindness with rcspcct to documcnts and photographs is rnost appreciatcd.

J am dccply indebted to a number of prominent historians and phi-

losophcrs of science for their willingncss to read and criticizc my manu-script: Stephen Brush, Gerald Holton, Max Jammer, Friedrich von Hayek, and Martin Klein.

Most welcome has becn the complete coopcr.ition of the Ernst-Mach Institut in Freiburg im Brcisgau, Germany. Led by Frank Kerkhof and Wolfgang Mcrzkirch, they havc madc their vast collcction of Mach documcnts and correspondence availablc for cxamination and study. I remember my months therc with marked plcasure.

I further wish to cxprc$s my unreservcd thanks to the large number of ladies and gcntlcmcn whom I intcrvicwcd concerning their rcmcm-brances and/or idcas on Ernst Mach and his collcague the philosopher and kinctic theorist Ludwig Boltzmann: Josip Boncclj, Engelbert Broda, Rudolf Carnap, Dieter Flamm, Liii Hahn, Viktor Kraft, Victor Lenzen, L. B. Loch, E. S. Pearson, and I Ians Thirring.

Nor can I ovcrlook the generous assistancc givcn me by the entire staff of the rcfercncc desk of the Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, bctwccn 1967 and 1971, in particular Mrs. Ann T. Hincklcy. I also wish to thank Dr. Horst Muller of the Uni-vcrsit;its Bibliodtck der tcchnischcn Univcrsitat Berlin-Hochschular-chiv; Dr. Paul Geyer, Stadtsarchivar Stadthaus Ziirich, Helen Dukas, Einstein Archivc, Institutc for Advanccd Study, Princeton. New Jersey; and the following librarics: Center for Research Librarics (Chicago), Iloughton Library (Harvard), Baneroft Library (Berkeley), Open Court Archivc (Southern Illinois Univcrsity, Carbondalc, 111.), Jacqucs Locb Archivc (Library of Congress, Washington D.C.), Physics Department Library (Zagreb, Yugoslavia), The Historical Institutc, Ar-chivc of the Academy, Archive of Czech Literaturę, and the Central State Archivc (all in Prague, Czcchoslovakia), Hugo Dingler Institut ftir mcthodologischc Forschung (Munich), Die óstcrreichische Aka-demice der Wisscnschaften, ósterrcichische National Bibliothck, and ostcrreichischcs Staatsarchiv (all in Vicnna).and the Akademie-Archiv. deutschc Akademie der Wisscnschaften (East Berlin). I am further indebted to the staffs of the following university librarics: Bonn. Co logne, Oslo, Copenhagen, Freiburg, Hamburg, Munich, Graz, and Vienna. I also appreciate the assistancc of the National Museum in London.

I feel vcry fortunatc and grateful for the valuable aid and advicc of a number of cxccllcnt Mach scholars: Joachim Thielc, Erwin Hiebert, Friedrich Herneck, Dieter Herrmann, Robert Cohen, Peter Bergmana,

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