Darrigol O. Number and measure: Hermann von Helmholtz at the crossroads of mathematics, physics, and psychology.
STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 2003;
34:515-573. [PMID:
14560724 DOI:
10.1016/s0039-3681(03)00043-8]
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Abstract
In 1887 Helmholtz discussed the foundations of measurement in science as a last contribution to his philosophy of knowledge. This essay borrowed from earlier debates on the foundations of mathematics (Grassmann/Du Bois), on the possibility of quantitative psychology (Fechner/Kries, Wundt/Zeller), and on the meaning of temperature measurement (Maxwell,Mach.). Late nineteenth-century scrutinisers of the foundations of mathematics (Dedekind, Cantor, Frege, Russell) made little of Helmholtz's essay. Yet it inspired two mathematicians with an eye on physics (Poincaré and Hölder), and a few philosopher-physicists (Mach, Duhem,Campbell). The aim of the present paper is to situate Helmholtz's contribution in this complex array of nineteenth-century philosophies of number, quantity, and measurement.
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