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Born
Ernst Mach was born in Chrlice, Moravia. Moravia was at the time a part of the Austrian Empire, and is now located in the Czech Republic. -
Earns Doctorate of Physics
A particularly gifted mathematician, Ernst categorically out performed classmates through his schooling, and his opponents in academic competitions. He received his Doctorate of Physics from the University of Vienna in 1860. -
The Science of Mechanics
In 1883, Mach first saw the publication of his work The Science of Mechanics, which was to prove largely influential to the field of relativity. In it, he proposed three positivist maxims, which were later dubbed "Machian Physics." -
Three Positivist Principles
The empirical guidelines which Mach discussed can be paraphrased as
1:Science should be based entirely on directly observable phenomena
2:Sciences should completely eschew absolute space and time in favor of relative motion
3:Any phenomena that would seem attributable to absolute space and time should instead be seen as emerging from the large scale distribution of matter in the universe. It was this third maxim which ultimately enabled Einstein in his work on general relativity. -
Logical Positivism
From 1895 to 1906, Mach chaired the "History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences" at the University of Vienna. Mach was a staunch empiricist, who asserted that only phenomenon which can be observed is to be considered scientific, due to the limitations of the human sensory condition.
