Historical Dictionary of Metaphysics by Rosenkrantz Gary;Hoffman Joshua; & Joshua Hoffman

Author:Rosenkrantz, Gary;Hoffman, Joshua; & Joshua Hoffman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2011-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

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MACH, ERNEST (1835–1916). Mach was a philosopher of science, physicist, physiologist, and psychologist of perception who defended a form of neutral monism. According to Mach, reality ultimately consists of perceptual elements that cannot be said to be either physical or mental in nature. Rather, such elements can be described as physical in some settings and psychological in others. Mach emphasized that these perceptual elements stand in relationships of dependence and interdependence; those relationships are often functional in character. Mach’s perceptual elements appear to be perceptible tropes.

Mach rejected the existence of unobservable or theoretical entities in the sciences. Moreover, he defended a kind of ontological phenomenalism or bundle theory according to which individual substances (e.g., fundamental particles, compound physical objects, and persons) can be eliminated in favor of the aforementioned perceptual elements and scientific laws about their interrelationships. Mach famously declared that Das Ich ist unrettbar (“The self cannot be salvaged or saved”).

Mach is well known for his rejection of the Newtonian beliefs in absolute space and time. He also argued that asymmetrical causal relationships are unnecessary for explanatory purposes in the sciences. According to Mach, all that is needed for scientific explanatory purposes are symmetrical relationships expressed by correlation laws. He was an important influence on the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle.

Mach’s writings include The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of Its Development (1883), Contributions to the Analysis of Sensations (1886), and Knowledge and Error (1905).

MAIMONIDES (MOSES BEN MAIMON) (1138–1204). Moses ben Maimon (meaning “Moses son of Maimon”) was born in the Spanish city of Cordoba. He is known as Maimonides in English and in Hebrew is generally referred to, reverentially, as the “Rambam,” an acronym of his Hebrew appellation (which can be transliterated into English as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon).

Maimonides was Sultan Saladin’s personal physician, wrote medical treatises, was the author of the 14-volume Mishneh Torah (1168), which would establish Maimonides as a primary rabbinical authority on Jewish law, and was the preeminent Jewish Scholastic philosopher/theologian in medieval times. His well-known epitaph reads “From Moses (of the Torah) to Moses (ben Maimon) there was none like Moses.”

As with a number of Islamic philosophers of his era, Maimonides wrote in an esoteric style that can make it difficult to interpret his views on metaphysical questions. Nonetheless, it is clear that like his contemporary, the Islamic Scholastic philosopher Averroës, Maimonides’ metaphysics is squarely in the Aristotelian/Neoplatonic tradition. Along with other Neoplatonists of that period, he accepts the existence of 10 Intellects and their corresponding Celestial Spheres, emanating from the One (which Maimonides identified with God).

Maimonides’ major philosophical work is the Guide for the Perplexed (1190). It was presented as a letter to a student who is perplexed about whether to pursue philosophy or follow the teachings of his religion. In keeping with his Scholastic viewpoint, Maimonides answered that—in principle—philosophy, science, and Judaism are in harmony. Maimonides was committed to the idea that the beliefs of all three should be judged by the canons of epistemic rationality, such as the laws of logic.

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