1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Ernst Mach and the idea of "Physical Phenomenology"
| Project/Area Number |
04610001
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Philosophy
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
NOE Keiichi Tohoku University Faculty of Arts and Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (40103220)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1992 – 1993
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| Keywords | physical phenomenology / sensuous elements / transcendental phenomenology / phenomenalism / pure description / mechanistic world-view / economy of thought / positivism |
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| Research Abstract |
Ernst Mach's "Physical Phenomenology" is a project which eliminates all the metaphysical categories (substance, causality, absolute motion and so on) from a system of physics, and investigates physical laws by means of purely describing complexes of elements in accordance with the economy of thought. This idea is supported by his radical criticism of the mechanistic world-view which dominated scientific reseaches in the nineteenth century. Mach's conceptual reexamination of Newtonian mechanics made way for Einstein's relativity theory, and at the same time stimulated the movement of "Logical Positivism" which finally developped into Analytic Philosophy.
On the other hand, Mach's idea of "Phenomenology" influenced on Husserl's philosophical thought and contributed the formation of "Transcendental Phenomenology." Both Mach and Husserl have the same methodological attitude to put their heart into describing the phenomena as fundamental data. But Mach's "Physical Phenomenology" is no more than the "mundane phenomenology" which is based on natural attitudes. At this poit, Husserl criticized Mach's position as "biological relativism" and built up his transcendental phenomenology by introducing the very procedure of "Phenpmenological Reduction".
In these circumstances, Mach's "Physical Phenomenology" was transformed into Analytic Philosophy by way of the "Linguistic Turn" on the one hand, and metamorphosed into Transcendental Phenomenology by passing through the "Transcendental Turn" on the other. Therefore Mach's philosophical achievement should be reevaluated as an origin of the twentieth century philosophy.
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