When the author of Identity and Reality accepted Langevin's suggestion that Meyerson "identify the thought processes" of Einstein's relativity theory, he turned from his assured perspective as historian of the sciences to the risky bias of contemporary philosophical critic. But Emile Meyerson, the epis temologist as historian, could not find a more rigorous test of his conclusions from historical learning than the interpretation of Einstein's work, unless perhaps he were to turn from the classical revolution of Einstein's relativity to the non-classical quantum theory. Meyerson captures our sympathy in all his writings: " . . . the role of the epistemologist is . . . in following the development of science" (250); the study of the evolution of reason leads us to see that "man does not experience himself reasoning . . . which is carried on unconsciously," and as the summation of his empirical studies of the works and practices of scientists, "reason . . . behaves in an altogether predict able way: . . . first by making the consequent equivalent to the antecedent, and then by actually denying all diversity in space" (202). If logic - and to Meyerson the epistemologist is logician - is to understand reason, then "logic proceeds a posteriori. " And so we are faced with an empirically based Par menides, and, as we shall see, with an ineliminable 'irrational' within science. Meyerson's story, written in 1924, is still exciting, 60 years later.

Inhalt

The Relativistic Deduction.- Preface.- 1. The Quantitative.- 1. The Role of Mathematics.- 2. How Positivism Explains this Role.- 3. The Inadequacy of this Explanation.- 4. The Importance of Quality.- 5. Quality and Action.- 6. Quantity and the Nature of Things.- 7. Change and its Explanation.- 8. The Artistic Point of View.- 9. Conflicts and their Resolution.- 10. The Flux of the Quantitative.- 11. The Intelligibility of Reality.- 12. Auguste Comte's Protest.- 2. Reality.- 13. The Preservation of Reality.- 14. Sensation and the Object.- 15. The Search for Consistency.- 16. The Objects Created by Science.- 17. The Attitude of the Philologist.- 18. Reality and Appearance.- 19. The Positivistic Point of View.- 20. Transcendence.- 21. The True Place of Theory in Science.- 22. Planck on the Retreat from 'Anthropomorphism'.- 3. The Spatial.- 23. The Agreement between Mathematics and Reality.- 24. The Quantitative in Space.- 25. Deduction According to Descartes and According to Hegel.- 26. The Corporeity of Geometrical Figures.- 27. Explanation by Geometrical Figures.- 28. Geometry and Algebra.- 29. Explanation by Motion.- 4. The Principle of Inertia.- 30. Absolute Motion.- 31. The Vis Impressa.- 32. Motion as a State.- 33. Velocity as Substance.- 34. The Action of Space.- 35. The Copernicans.- 36. Newton and Kant.- 37. Space and Inertial Motion.- 38. Aristotle's Explanation and Ours.- 39. Two Possible Kinds of Explanation.- 40. Geometry and Rationality.- 41. Impact.- 5. Relativism, a Theory About Reality.- 42. The Evolution of the Notion of Space.- 43. Theories Based on Principles and Theories Based on Representations.- 44. Relativism and Phenomenalism.- 45. Einstein's Opinion.- 46. Eddington.- 47. Langevin, Borel, Jean Becquerel, Weyl and Marais.- 48. Reality as Independent of the Observer.- 49. From Common Sense to Relativism.- 50. Positivistic Declarations.- 51. The Metaphysics of Laws.- 52. The Idealistic Interpretation.- 53. The Name of the Theory.- 54. The Reality of Time and Space.- 55. The Vehemence of the Controversy.- 56. The Popularizations.- 57. The Level of Knowledge.- 58. Mathematics and Philosophy.- 59. The General Public and the Elite.- 6. Gravitation.- 60. The Mystery of Newtonian Gravitation.- 61. The Relativistic Solution.- 62. The Spatial Nature of the Theory.- 63. The Analogy with Previous Theories.- 64. Projectile Motion and Gravitation.- 7. Time.- 65. Minkowski's View.- 66. The Views of Langevin and Wien.- 67. The Views of Sommerfeld, Cassirer and Weyl.- 68. The Views of Einstein, Eddington and Cunningham.- 69. The Spatialization of Time in Relativism.- 70. The Irreversibility of Phenomena.- 71. The Source of the Relativistic Exaggerations.- 72. Identity in Time.- 73. The Spatialization of Time in the Past.- 74. The Dissymmetry between Time and Space.- 75. Carnot's Principle and Plausibility.- 8. Electrical Phenomena.- 76. The Experimental Bases of Relativism.- 77. Relativism and Optics.- 78. Einstein's Theory does not Explain Electricity.- 79. The Prime Phenomenon.- 80. Explanation of Electrical Phenomena.- 81. Purely Geometrical Reality.- 9. Biological Phenomena.- 82. Mental Phenomena.- 83. Vital Phenomena.- 84. The Vital and Hyperspace.- 10. Universal Explanation.- 85. Relativism as a System of Universal Deduction.- 86. Relativistic Geometry is Still Deductive.- 87. Relativism and Descartes's System.- 88. Relativism and Hegel's System.- 89. The Limits of the Three Systems.- 90. The Universality of the Relativistic Deduction.- 91. The Return to Reality.- 92. The Mind Rediscovered in Nature.- 11. Matter.- 93. Matter Resorbed into Space.- 94. The Relativist's Reservations.- 95. The 'Approved Methods' of Physics.- 96. Relativistic Space and the Hegelian Categories.- 97. The Advantage of Spatial Deduction.- 98. The Given in the Relativistic Deduction.- 99. All Reasoning Begins with Perception.- 100. The Tendency toward Idealism and Realistic Convictions.- 12. Essence and Existence.- 101. The Nature of this Distinction.- 102. Its Role in Medieval Thought.- 103. Its Role in Modern Philosophy.- 104. Its Role in Relativism.- 13. Diversity.- 105. The Simplification Brought About by Relativism.- 106. Where has Physical Reality Gone?.- 107. Irreversibility.- 108. Relativism Makes the Situation Worse.- 109. Discontinuity.- 110. Absolute Measures.- 111. The Concept of the Atom.- 112. Quanta.- 113. Relativism and Quanta.- 114. The Physical Resists Reduction.- 14. Interpretation.- 115. Abstract Number and Concrete Magnitude.- 116. The Relativist's Illusion.- 117. Even the Relativistic Concept of the Spatial is the Result of Interpretation.- 15. The Relativistic Imagination.- 118. The Existence of a Limit.- 119. The Imaginary Quantity in Algebra.- 120. Spatial Image and Algebraic Formula.- 121. Poincaré's Prediction.- 122. The Indeterminateness of the Limit.- 16. The Appeal of Relativism.- 123. The Initiates.- 124. The Attraction of Hegelianism.- 125. Comparison with Relativism.- 126. The Conviction Created by the Deduction.- 127. The Physicists and Bohr's Theory.- 128. The Positivistic Explanation of this Attitude.- 129. The Inadequacy of this Explanation.- 130. The Appeal of Rational Explanation.- 131. Its Appeal for the Relativist and for the Hegelian.- 132. The Advantage of Scientific Concepts.- 133. The Success of Relativism.- 17. The Deducible and the Real.- 134. Eddington's and Weyl's Doubts.- 135. The Contradiction.- 136. Is Relativistic Reality Reverting to the Self?.- 137. The Subjectivistic Affirmations are Beside the Point.- 138. Where Does this State of Mind Come From?.- 139. Weyl and Schelling.- 140. The Opposition Between Thought and Reality.- 141. The Characters of the Novelist and the Playwright.- 142. The Historicity of Jesus.- 143. This has Nothing to do with the Unpredictability of the Vital.- 144. There are Degrees of Rationality.- 145. The Conflict between Realism and Acosmism.- 146. Nonrational Laws.- 147. Reality does not Disappear.- 18. The System.- 148. The Relativists and Kant.- 149. Kantian Space and Time as Forms of the Mind.- 150. Relativistic Time and Space as Separate from the Self.- 151. The 'Copernican' About-Face in Kant and in Relativism.- 152. Temporal and Spatial Intuition.- 153. The Superposition of the Two Points of View.- 154. Mathematics in Relativism and in Kant.- 155. Relativism is a Scientific Mathematicism.- 156. It is not Empirical.- 157. Philosophical Panmathematicism.- 158. Geometrism and Alge brism.- 159. Geometrism as an Intermediate Step…