Abstract
When, in 1892, Boltzmann published “On the Methods of theoretical physics”,1 he had read2 Hertz’s 1890 lecture on the relation between light and electricity, Maxwell’s important works, “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”, and A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, as well as Maxwell’s booklet, Matter and Motion, Concerning models, Boltzmann’s main interest was Maxwell’s method of “mechanical analogies”, a method that Boltzmann accepted because in physical theory “the new approach compensates the abandonment of complete congruence with nature by the correspondingly more striking appearance of the points of similarity”. Nevertheless he rejects any generalisation of Maxwell’s ideas “that knowledge itself is nothing else than the finding of analogies”3 and he also refuses to abandon completely the old method as supposedly “worn out in spite of all it has done”.
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Notes
Boltzmann [1974] 5–12.
Boltzmann[1974] 10.
Boltzmann [1974] 11.
Boltzmann [1974] 77–100.
In two essays he defended atomism on epistemological grounds and in his 1897 “On the Question of Objective Existence of Processes in Inanimate Nature” (Boltzmann [1974] 57–76), he attempted a coherent presentation of an evolutionary epistemology.
Boltzmann [1974] 83.
Boltzmann [1974] 83.
Boltzmann [1974] 87.
Boltzmann [1974] 90–91.
Boltzmann [1974] 91.
Boltzmann [1974] 94.
Boltzmann [1974] 94.
Boltzmann [1974] 96.
Fasol-Boltzmann [1990] 12–13.
Boltzmann [1974] 101–128.
Boltzmann [1974] 105.
Boltzmann [1974] 105.
Boltzmann [1974] 105
Boltzmann [1974] 159–172.
Boltzmann [1974] 166.
Boltzmann [1974] 166.
Boltzmann [1974] 169.
Boltzmann [1974] 169.
Boltzmann [1974] 111.
Boltzmann “On the fundamental Principles”, [1899], reprinted in: Boltzmann [1974] 119.
Hertz, The Principles of Mechanics presented in a new Form, in: Hertz [1956] 26.
Boltzmann [1974] 117.
Boltzmann [1974] 118.
Boltzmann “On aThesis of Schopenhauer” [1905], Boltzmann [1974] 185–198, 195.
Boltzmann “On the Principles of Mechanics” [1900]; Boltzmann [1974] 129–152, 133.
Boltzmann [1974] 135.
Boltzmann, “Fundamental Principles and Equations of Mechanics”, [1899]; reprinted in: Boltzmann [1974] 108.
Boltzmann [1974] 68.
Kuhn [1978] 44.
Kuhn [1978] 67.
Kuhn [1978] 70. I believe that Boltzmann’s Bild-conception of theory, pointing as it was to developments beyond his conception of generalised mechanics, was responsible for this prevarication.
Jammer [1966] 18,19.
Bergia [1988].
Bergia [1988] 227.
Boltzmann, “Lectures on the Principles of Mechanics” [1904]; reprinted in: Boltzmann [1974] 259.
Concerning Boltzmann’s polemic with Planck: Meyenn [1981] 105–106.
J. Pouthas and J. Oms, “L. Boltzmann and the second law of the Theory of Heat”, in: Sexl & Blackmore [1982].
Boltzmann, Vorwort [1981] IV.
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© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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D’Agostino, S. (2000). On Boltzmann’s Mechanics and His Bild-Conception of Physical Theory. In: A History of the Ideas of Theoretical Physics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 213. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9034-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9034-6_9
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