Hermann Von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science

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David Cahan
University of California Press, 1993 - Biography & Autobiography - 666 pages
Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) was a polymath of dazzling intellectual range and energy. Renowned for his co-discovery of the second law of thermodynamics and his invention of the ophthalmoscope, Helmholtz also made many other contributions to physiology, physical theory, philosophy of science and mathematics, and aesthetic thought. During the late nineteenth century, Helmholtz was revered as a scientist-sage—much like Albert Einstein in this century.

David Cahan has assembled an outstanding group of European and North American historians of science and philosophy for this intellectual biography of Helmholtz, the first ever to critically assess both his published and unpublished writings. It represents a significant contribution not only to Helmholtz scholarship but also to the history of nineteenth-century science and philosophy in general.
 

Contents

Helmholtz at the Borders
1
The Science
2
Helmholtz and the German Medical Community
17
Color Research Richard L Kremer
205
Helmholtzs Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft
291
Object States
334
Helmholtzs Instrumental Role in the Formation
374
Helmholtzs
403
Thermodynamics Günter Bierhalter
432
The Evolution
461
Helmholtzs Empiricist Philosophy
477
Clinical Practice
499
David Cahan
559
Bibliography
603
Index
637
Copyright

Helmholtzs Mechanical Foundation
423

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About the author (1993)

David Cahan is Associate Professor of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and author of An Institute for an Empire: The Physikalisch-Technische Reich-sanstalt, 1871-1918 (1990).

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