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Ernst Mach

rcgular membcrship in thc Austrian Acadcmy of Science, ihc most prcstigious scicntific socicty in thc now slowly disintcgrating Dual Monarchy.¹¹

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Mach rcmaincd quitc busy betwecn thc cnd of one rcctoratc infigK,, and thc beginning of a sccond i n (1883} Bcsidcs tcaching, Iaboratory i work, and supervising thc construction of a ncw science building and Iaboratory away from thc center of Praguc and thc likelihood of stu-‘ dent riots which had now bccomc thc order of thc day, he conccntrated ; on writing a carcfully argued, lengthy book on the history of mc-; e h ani es.^1G

During this same period a number of cvcnts conspicuously cncour-l aged his interest in philosophy. A special lccture “On thc Economical Naturę of Physical Inquiry” attractcd the avid support of thc Classical | scholar and historian of philosophy, Theodor Gomperz.¹⁰ Thomas Masaryk, the futurę president of Czcchoslovakia, began tcaching posi-tivisti<Tphilosophy in the Czech Univcrsity. And Mach entered into personal relationships with a pair of talcnted and latcr quite influcntial thinkers.

In the fali of 1882 an cxpccted visitor arrivcd from America and boldly announeed his desire to speak with Stumpf, Mach, and Hering. William James,_thc Harward psychologist and philosopher, who had earlier studied in Germany, wrotc to his wifc about his wclcome as follows:

I have rarely cnjoycd a forty-eight hours better, in spite of thc fact that thc good and sharpnosed Stumpf . . . insisted on trotting mc about day and night, ovcr thc whole length and brcadth of Prague, and that (Ernst) Mach (professor of physics) genius of all trades, simply took Stumpf’s place to do thc same. I hcard (Ewald) Hering givc a vcry poor physiolcgy lccture and Mach a bcautiful one. I presented them with my visiting card, saying that I was with their “Schriften schr vertraut und wolltc nicht eher Praguc vcrlasscn ais bis ich wenigstens cin Paar Wortc mit Ihncn urn-tauschte.” They rcccivcd mc with open arms. I had an hour and a halfs talk with Hering, which clcared up somc things for mc. He asked mc to comc to his housc that cvening, but I gavc an cvasive rcply, bcing frarful of boring him. Mcanwhilc, Mach camc to my hotel and I spent four hours walking and supping with him at his club [thc Deutsche Casino?], an unforgettablc convcrsation. I don’t think anyonc cvcr gavc mc so strong an impression of purc intellcctual genius. He apparcntly has rcad evcry-7O

thing, and has an absolutc simplicity of manncr and when his face lighis up, that arc charming.'* »

winningness of smil_c

Mach and James correspondcd and rcmaincd friends for thc _n«t twenty-eight years unt.i thc lattcr’s dcath. Mach cvcn dedicatcd a book to him." Nor werc Mach's idcas without influence on William James's subscqucnt philosophy, as we shall sec.

Richard Avcnarius, professor of philosophy in Zurich from 1877 until his carly dcath in 1896, indcpcndently dcvclopcd a phcnomcnal-istic and “cconomy”-oricntcd philosophy vcry similar to that of Mach The two men beganJojcoircspond in-iblS2_and threc years latcr Mach tried in vain to arrange a professorship for Asenarius in Praguc.¹⁹ The latter callcd his form of phenomenalism “Empirio-Criticism,” a labcl that had a certain voguc until World War I.²⁰ Mach was especially impressed by Avcnarius’s notion of "introjcction,” a dcscriptive criti- I cism of thc proccss of imagining thc mind and consciousness into thc \ human brain.²¹

Avenarius'$ influence, howcver, while long equal or evcn greater than Mach’s, began to fade after thc turn of the centurią parrly bccausc of his carly dcath, but mostly owing to Mach’s inaeasććTscientific reputation and thc fact that Mach’s philosophy books—being frcc from Avcnarius’s tcchnical jargon—wcrc much casicr to rcad.

IV

Mach ncvcr finished his sccond rectorate. His rcign was short and turbulent. But interesting as some of his actions wcrc in themseives, perhaps most interesting is thc tjucstion of his resignation Just why did hc resign?

In thc first place, it was no smali honor for Mach to have bccn chosen again to lead the Univcrsity only four years after his last term in oflicc. The Acadcmic Senate chose a rcctor for one year, and thc oflicc was rotated among the four faculties, so that, in efTect, Mach was rcclcctcd at thc first opportunity. Apparcntly, thc shrunken German Univcrsity wanted to start out with its best man. Ewald Hering was thc first rcctor after thc split that took place in 1882 and Mach thc sccond.²³ Both men werc considcrcd the leaders of German professor-ial opposition to Czech dcmands in Praguc.²³ Machs acadcmic reputation had also risen in thc interim bctwcen his two rcctoratcs with the publication of his Science of Mechanics in 1883.

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