Abstract
Philipp Frank’s life and work in the social and intellectual context of Prague is represented in his fight for Mach’s legacy. In this, he faced harsh opposition from Christian von Ehrenfels of the Prague School and a follower of Franz Brentano, and who acted as the chief antagonist of Frank and Anton Lampa in 1914. This set the stage for the young Philipp Frank to put Mach’s legacy to the test, which led him to develop a particular interpretation of it which formed the basis for his lifelong interest in analyzing non-cognitive factors in both theories and scientific orientation. His social and intellectual life can be understood together through the concept of loyalty, which is an excellent tool to analyze his careful relativism as opposed to any sort of absolutism, that echoes in his private, in his academic and in his philosophical life.
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Notes
- 1.
John T. Blackmore, Ernst Mach’s Vienna 1895–1930: Or Phenomenalism as Philosophy of Science. Dordrecht: Springer 2001, p. 62.
- 2.
Ibid, p. 64.
- 3.
Michael Stöltzner has called this synthesis “Vienna Indeterminism”, cf. “Vienna Indeterminism: Mach, Boltzmann , Exner “, in: Synthese 119, 1999, pp. 85–111.
- 4.
Blackmore, Ernst Mach’s Vienna 1895–1930: Or Phenomenalism as Philosophy of Science, op. cit. p. 63.
- 5.
See Lorraine Daston, “The Historicity of Science”, in: Glenn W. Most (ed.), Historicization-Historisierung., Göttingen: Vandenhoeck – Ruprecht 2001, p. 201.
- 6.
Alan Richardson, “Occasions for an Empirical History of Philosophy of Science: American Philosophers of Science at Work in the 1950s and 1969s”, in: HOPOS 2, 2012, p. 12.
- 7.
See Matthias Neuber , “Philosophie der modernen Physik-Philipp Frank und Abel Rey “, in: Grazer Philosophische Studien 80, 2010, pp. 131–149.
- 8.
Michael Heidelberger and Friedrich Stadler (eds.), Philosophy of Science and Politics. Wien, New York: Springer 2003.
- 9.
Elisabeth Nemeth , “Philosophy of Science and Democracy. Some Reflections on Philipp Frank’s Relativity – A Richer Truth”, in: Heidelberger and Stadler (eds.): Philosophy of Science and Politics, op. cit., p. 20.
- 10.
Ibid, p.21.
- 11.
See Richardson, “Occasions for an Empirical History of Philosophy of Science: American Philosophers of Science at Work in the 1950s and 1960s”, op. cit., p. 12.
- 12.
Peter Goller, “Prager Memorandum für die positivistische Philosophie”, in: Topos, 1995, p. 154.
- 13.
Ibid., pp. 163, 164.
- 14.
Thomas Uebel , “Beyond the Formalist Criterion of Cognitive Significance: Philipp Frank’s later Antimetaphysics”, in: HOPOS 1, 2011, pp. 53, 54.
- 15.
Goller, “Prager Memorandum für die positivistische Philosophie”, op. cit., p. 155.
- 16.
Ibid., p. 187.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 189.
- 18.
Richardson, “Occasions for an Empirical History of Philosophy of Science: American Philosophers of Science at Work in the 1950s and 1960s”, op. cit., p. 13.
- 19.
Michael Stöltzner, “Philipp Frank and the German Physical Society“, in: W. DePauli-Schimanovich, E. Köhler and F. Stadler (Eds.), The Foundational Debate. Complexity and Constructivity in Mathematics and Physics. Dordrecht: Kluwer 1995, pp. 293–302.
- 20.
Václav Podaný, “Philipp Frank, Albína Dratvová , Jaroslav Heyrovský (Mnichov 1938 a poválečné osudy)”, in: Dějiny věd a techniky, XXVIII, 3, 1995, pp. 129–143.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Emilie Těšínská, “František Záviška (1879–1945) Physiker. Ein großer Verlust für die tschechische Physik“, in: Monika Glettler and Alena Míšková (Eds.), Prager Professoren 1938–1948: zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. Essen: Klartext 2001, pp. 483–511.
- 23.
Gerald Holton , “Philipp Frank at Harvard University: His work and his influence”, in: Synthese, 153, 2, 2006, pp. 297–311.
- 24.
Alena Míšková, Die Deutsche (Karls-)Universität vom Münchner Abkommen bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges: Universitätsleitung und Wandel des Professorenkollegiums. Praha: Karolinum 2007.
- 25.
Těšínská, “František Záviška (1879–1945) Physiker. Ein großer Verlust für die tschechische Physik”, op. cit.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
See Adam B. Seligman, The Problem of Trust. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1997. Ute Frevert, Vertrauen. Historische Annäherungen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck – Ruprecht 2003, pp. 7–66. Christoph Conrad and Jürgen Kocka, Staatsbürgerschaft in Europa. Historische Erfahrungen und aktuelle Debatten. Hamburg 2001, pp. 9–28.
- 28.
Aleida Assmann and Heidrun Friese , Erinnerung, Geschichte, Identität. Bd.3: Identitäten. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 1998, pp. 11–23.
- 29.
Ladislav Kunte , Vznik nového náboženství. Praha 1920, p. 165. (Martin Schulze Wessel (ed.), Loyalitäten in der Tschechoslovakischen Republik 1918–1938. München: Oldenbourg Verlag 2004, p. 9.).
- 30.
Emanuel Rádl , “Kulturní politika (Kulturpolitik)”, in: Česká stráž 1, 1918, p. 3. (Schulze Wessel (ed.), Loyalitäten in der Tschechoslovakischen Republik 1918–1938, op. cit., p. 8.
- 31.
Emanuel Rádl , “The fight between Czechs and Germans”, in: Robert Luft, Miloš Havelka and Stefan Zwicker (Eds.), Zivilgesellschaft und Menschenrechte im östlichen Europa. Tschechische Konzepte der Bürgergesellschaft im historischen Vergleich. Bielefeld: Vandenhoeck – Ruprecht 2014, p. 355.
- 32.
Těšínská, “František Záviška (1879–1945) Physiker. Ein großer Verlust für die tschechische Physik”, op. cit., p. 493.
- 33.
Don Howard , “Better Red than Dead”, in: Science and Education 18, 2009, p. 199.
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Hofer, V. (2020). Philipp Frank’s Civic and Intellectual Life in Prague: Investments in Loyalty. In: Schuster, R. (eds) The Vienna Circle in Czechoslovakia. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36383-3_3
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