Substance and Function & Einstein's Theory of Relativity

by Ernst Cassirer, Mathematics

In this double-volume work, a great modern philosopher propounds a system of thought in which Einstein's theory of relativity is regarded as the natural progression of the motives inherent to mathematics and the physical sciences. Includes such topics mechanism and motion; Mayer's methodology of natural science; Richter's definite proportions; Einstein's relativity and "reality;" more. 1923 edition.

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Ebooks

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Ernst Cassirer was one of the major figures in the development of philosophical idealism in the first half of the twentieth century, a German Jewish philosopher. Coming out of the Marburg tradition of neo-Kantianism, he developed a philosophy of culture as a theory of symbols founded in a phenomenology of knowledge.

Reviews

[Antonio Bosnjak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Einsteins Theory of Relativity,with that,rating goes to it solely...What did I think?It is fantastic,something that changes and widens your perspective on Erkenntnistheorie and philosophy of science,particularly physics and mathematics in general.You will never look the same at the methods and functions of science in embarking the truth behind the "our world and our I",to paraphrase Cassirer,"apsolutization of views(metaphysical and physical,physical and psychological etc.) leads to them being the barricade in front of recognition of full form of our understanding of I and the world."

[Allan Olley · Rating 5 out of 5]

These two works Substance and Function and Einstein's Theory of Relativity translated into English from the German. The two works were composed about 10 years apart, but they cover much of the same material focusing on how to understand the method and implications of modern mathematics and science.

Substance and Function begins with a discussion of the nature of mathematics that draws on the debates around the foundation of mathematics both technical and philosophical. He then applies these ideas to understanding natural science. He draws on various contemporary works of science including authors like Duhem and Poincare and brings in more obscure issues such as the changing length of the solar day and its implication for time keeping. The perspective Cassirer is often referred to as a neo-Kantian and he calls his perspective critical philosophy. The key claim is that perception is conditioned by ones concepts and so science is not a matter of uncovering the patterns in the world, so much as bring the right concepts to perception to allow the construction of an effective system of knowledge in that domain.

This book is a remarkably wide ranging tour of scientific and mathematical thought at the time. As a result I found connections to various friends and colleagues work in the philosophy of science and the history of physics. Cassirer is often noted as a figure that bridges the analytic-continental divide, he influenced logical positivists like Carnap and also the existentialist Heidegger. This makes him interesting for his style of writing and thought which is more expansive and exalted than the often dry constructions of most philosophers of science.

This ebook has a lot of technical problems. There are many failures of optical character recognition especially for mathematical equations and Greek characters, occasionally page headers are included in the text and so on. Also I could only get my eReader to display most of the text after I looked at another text in it the eReader. Most of the text would not display if this book were the first one I opened in a session.

[Will Sheckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cassirer sees modern logic—represented by function—as a more advanced method for making sense of reality than the old logic, developed by Aristotle, which reduces all similar properties seen in objects to an underlying substance of reality, negating all apparent differences that naturally occur therein. Function, in contrast, is the critical way in which perception deals with reality structurally, interpreting each of its parts within a system and developing universal laws to explain the whole from the part. Cassirer argues that the numerical concept is derived from this functional capacity in the subject, and accepts Dedekind's definition of ordinal numbers and mathematical induction to explain number by a generative rule, in contrast with Russell's extensional definiton of cardinal numbers that are characterized by a one-one relation among equivalent classes. Cassirer is really a joy to read, and refreshing in the sort of critical idealism he engages with in the Kantian tradition, rather than touting the same logical empiricism of many of his contemporaries.

[MeiMeiSam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perception is the only channel with which we can connect with the outter world or we would have been in darkness inside our own bodily entity. Perception is, through transcendence, consummated by outside worldliness which is comprised of abstraction of objectivity.
Moreover, Universality is based on the conception that leads us away from the abstraction of objectivity. I don't agree with the conception of Universality is ever existed that there should have been no such thing as Universality that is only an illusional conception based on the wrong basical concept of humanity towards God.
People just propose what is able to be seen by their sightedness as reality but God's conception is totally different that God's creation is an miracle. People are just an objectivity if we are to place a conception of Logical trick to wrench people away from the conventional thought, we are to find a brand new conception on Logos which is diverting us to the path of totality towads individualism regarded as abstraction.
Various Philosophers, if to be grouped as one kind, they are the Philosophers' group but they still cannot comprise each others inside the group as each of them is an individual with abstraction of their own.