ERNST

See also:

• ERNST MACH (1838– )

MACH (1838– )  , Austrian physicist and psychologist, was born on the 18th of February '838 at Turas in Moravia, and studied at Vienna . He was professor of mathematics at Gratz (1864–1867), of physics at Prague (1867-1895), and of physics at Vienna (1895–1901) . In 1879 and 188o as Rector Magnificus he fought against the introduction of Czech instead of German in the Prague University . In 1901 he was made a member of the Austrian house of peers . In philosophy he began with a strong predilection for the physical side of psychology, and at an early age he came to the conclusion that all existence is sensation, and, after a lapse into notimenalism under the influence of Fechner's . Psychophysics, finally adopted a universal physical phenomenalism . The Ego he considers not an entity sharply distinguished from the Non-ego, but merely, as it were, a medium of continuity of sensory impressions . His whole theory appears to be vitiated by the confusion of physics and psychology . WoRKs.—Kompendium der Physik fur Mediziner (Vienna, 1863) ; Einleitung in die Helmholtz'sche Musiktheorie (Gratz, 1866) ; Die Gesch. u. d . Wurzel d . Satzes von d . Erhaltung d .

Arbeit (Prague, 1872) ; Grundlinien d . Lehre v. d . Bewegungsempfindungen (

Leipzig, 1875) ; Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwickelung (Leipzig, 1883; rev. ed., 19o8; Eng. trans., T . J . McCormack, 19oz) ; Beitrage zur Analyse d . Emptiindungen (Jena, 1886), 5th ed., 1906, entitled Die Analyse d . Empfindungen; Leitfaden d . Physik fur Studierende (Prague, 1881, in collaboration) ; Popularwissenschaftliche Vorlesungen (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1903) ; Die Prinzipien d . Warmelehre (2nd ed., 1900) ; Eekenntnis and Irrtum (Leipzig, 1905) .