Most Popular Books by Philipp Frank

A distinguished mathematician traces the history of science, illustrating philosophy''s ongoing role, explaining technology''s erosion of the rapport between the two fields, and offering suggestions for their reunion. 1962 edition.

The Law of Causality and its Limits was the principal philosophical work of the physicist turned philosopher, Philipp Frank. Born in Vienna on March 20, 1884, Frank died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 21, 1966. He received his doctorate in 1907 at the University of Vienna in theoretical physics, having studied under Ludwig Boltzmann; his sub sequent research in physics and mathematics was represented by more than 60 scientific papers. Moreover his great success as teacher and expositor was recognized throughout the scientific world with publication of his collaborative Die Differentialgleichungen der Mechanik und Physik, with Richard von Mises, in 1925-27. Frank was responsible for the second volume, on physics, and especially noted for his authoritative article on classical Hamiltonian mechanics and optics. Among his earliest papers were those, beginning in 1908, devoted to special relativity, which together with general relativity and physical cosmology occupied him throughout his life. Already in 1907, Frank published his seminal paper ''Kausalgesetz und Erfahrung'' (''Experience and the Law of Causality''), much later collected with a splendid selection of his essays on philosophy of science, in English (1941c and 1949g, in our Bibliography). Joining the first ''Vienna Circle'' in the first decade of the 20th century, with Hans Hahn, mathematician, and Otto Neurath, sociologist and economist, and deeply influenced by studies of Ernst Mach''s critical conceptual histories of science and by the striking challenge of Poincare and Duhem, Frank continued his epistemological investigations.

Philipp Frank (1884–1966) was an influential philosopher of science, public intellectual, and Harvard educator whose last book, The Humanistic Background of Science, is finally available. Never published in his lifetime, this original manuscript has been edited and introduced to highlight Frank''s remarkable but little-known insights about the nature of modern science—insights that rival those of Karl Popper and Frank''s colleagues Thomas Kuhn and James Bryant Conant. As a leading exponent of logical empiricism and a member of the famous Vienna Circle, Frank intended his book to provide an accessible, engaging introduction to the philosophy of science and its cultural significance. The book is steadfastly true to science; to aspirations of peace, unity, and human flourishing after World War II; and to the pragmatic philosophies of Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey that Frank embraced in his new American home. Amidst the many recent surveys and retrospective analyses of midcentury philosophy of science, The Humanistic Background of Science offers an original, first-hand view of Frank''s post-European life and of intellectual dramas then unfolding in Chicago, New York City, and Boston.

Einstein His Life and Times By PHILIPP FRANK. Contents include: I. EINSTEIN''S YOUTH AND TRAINING 1 Family Background 3 2 Childhood 6 3 Gymnasium in Munich 10 4 Intellectual Interests 12 5 Departure from Munich 15 6 Student at Zurich 18 7 Official of a Patent Office 21 II. CONCEPTIONS OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD BEFORE EINSTEIN 1 Philosophical Conception of Nature 25 2 Organismic Physics of the Middle Ages 27 3 Mechanistic Physics and Philosophy 28 4 Relativity Principle in Newtonian Mechanics 30 5 Ether as a Mechanical Hypothesis 32 6 Remnants of Medieval Concepts in Mechanistic Physics 34 7 Critics of the Mechanistic Philosophy 36 8 Ernst Mach: The General Laws of Physics Are Summaries of Observations Organized in Simple Forms 38 9 Henri Polncarl: The General Laws of Physics Are Free Creations of the Human Mind 40 10 Positivistic and Pragmatic Movements 42 11 Science at the End of the Nineteenth Century 45 HI. BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA IN PHYSICS 1 Life in Bern 49 2 Interest in Philosophy 50 3 The Fundamental Hypotheses of the Theory of Relativity 53 vli Contents 4 Consequences of Einstein''s Two Hypotheses 55 5 Relativity of Time 57 6 Relativity of Other Physical Concepts 63 7 Equivalence of Mass and Energy 65 8 Theory of Brownian Motion 67 9 Origin of the Quantum Theory 69 10 Theory of the Photon 71 IV. EINSTEIN AT PRAGUE 1 Professor at the University of Zurich 74 2 Appointment to Prague 77 3 Colleagues at Prague 80 4 TA? Jews in Prague 83 5 Einstein''s Personality Portrayed in a Novel 85 6 Einstein as a Professor 89 7 Generalization of the Special Theory of Relativity 91 8 Influence of Gravity on the Propagation of Light 94 9 Departure from Prague 98 V. EINSTEIN AT BERLIN 1 The Solvay Congress 101 2 Trip to Vienna 103 3 Invitation to Berlin 106 4 Einstein''s Position in the Academic Life of Berlin 109 5 Relationship with Colleagues 112 6 Relationship with Students 116 7 Outbrea DEGREES of the World War 119 8 German Science in the War 121 9 Lz''jfe iVz Wartime 123 VI. THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY 1 New Theory of Gravitation 127 2 . R0/

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfängen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen für die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfügung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden müssen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.