The Historical Development Of Energetics (boston Studies In The Philosophy And History Of Science)

Although produced in controversy, this book is not a controversial work. The calming effects of the years that have passed since the tumultuous days in Lubeck are enough to guarantee that these pages will accurately trace the coming and going of opinions, the battle for the truth and the recognition of error. In only a few passages, especially in Part Six, will one be able to tell from the tone of the book that it comes out of this struggle. For these I ask the indulgence of my reader, since they contain explanations the extent of which probably does not correspond either to the difficulty of the questions treated or to their influence. But in such passages the extent of treatment could not - as was otherwise the case - be made to depend solely on a judgment as to the value and significance of the investigations presented. There considerations of defense, more than concern for symmetry, had to determine the structure. As the only book-length general history and defense of energetics, Georg Helm's Energetik is a unique and important work. Conceived in the strife of the great debate on energetics at the Lbeck Naturforscherversammlung, Helm's book seeks to achieve several distinct, although often closely related, objectives. It tries to revise, clarify and defend Helm's own development of energetic theory in order to rebut critics, especially Boltzmann and Planck. It also seeks to defend and promote a phenomenalist conception of energetics and thus a view of the history, nature and goal of physical theory that both responds to criticism and separates Helm's vision of a science of energy from those of others, notably Ostwald. Finally, it presents and defends energetics, despite its fitful development, as `a unified development of thought', which must be `understood as a whole', since it amounts to nothing less than a `great reorientation in the human understanding of natural events'. This book provides the first English translation of Helm's seminal work and offers an introduction to its contours and content Front Matter....Pages i-63 The Establishment of the First Law....Pages 65-105 Preparation for the Second Law....Pages 107-123 Classical Thermodynamics....Pages 125-160 New Initiatives, Controversies and Misplaced Efforts....Pages 161-180 The Energetic Treatment of Chemistry....Pages 181-251 The Energetic Foundation of Mechanics....Pages 253-297 Energy Factors....Pages 299-362 The Mechanical Approach to Energetics and Mechanical Pictures....Pages 363-404 Back Matter....Pages 405-420