Ideas from 'Popular Scientific Lectures' by Ernst Mach [1894], by Theme Structure

green numbers give full details    |     back to texts     |     unexpand this idea


1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 2. Positivism
Laws of nature are just records of regularities and correlations, with concepts to make recording them easier
                        Full Idea: For Mach, the laws of nature are simply the compendious record of sensory regularities, correlations of elements. Any additional concepts are no more than symbols or devices for the convenient recording of general sensory patterns.
                        From: report of Ernst Mach (Popular Scientific Lectures [1894], pp.201-5) by Rom Harré - Laws of Nature 2
                        A reaction: Mach is the high priest of scientific positivism, which is really just hard-line empiricism.