A Research On Mach's Thought Of Epistemology In His Scientific Methodology

Ernst Mach's philosophical thought was established in scientific research.He carried out philosophical attempts in scientific methodology and psychology of knowledge,and his epistemological thought was contained in them.In philosophy,Mach set off from Kant,returned to Berkeley,and finally fell on Hume's theory of causality;Herbart's mathematical psychology and Fechner's psychophysics also inspired Mach.In terms of biology and the history of civilization,Mach absorbed the viewpoint of evolution and advocated that human knowledge is also a product of evolutionary development.Mach put forward the theory of elements to oppose traditional philosophy.Mach believed that elements and feelings were equivalent,and proposed the guiding principle which mental things are parallel to physical things.Memory and association,sensation and imagination,and similarity and analogy are the basic conditions of cognition;Methods of mathematical functions,thought experiments and physical experiments,hypothesis,deduction andinduction are common means of knowing.According to Mach,the factual experience as potential knowledge is contained in the concept,and the factual judgment is the expression of knowledge.Besides,knowledge reflects something that the adaptation of thoughts to facts and to each other.In addition,the economy of scientific theory is one of the goals of scientific knowledge.Mach's epistemological thought has the tendency of multi-disciplinary,and it belongs to the flexible and inclusive epistemology of experience.Mach's epistemology has a direct influence on the formation and development of logical empiricism.The "Gestalt" theory and the principle of economy thought advocated by Mach have been inherited and transformed by many schools.The limitation of Mach's epistemological thought mainly shows the following aspects: Mach's element theory inevitably leads to subjective idealism;Mach's concept of "element" cannot be universally recognized by the philosophical community;His opposition to "atoms" was challenged by other scientists;Since modern philosophy mostly distinguishes between logic and psychological functions,the principle of economy thought advocated by Mach was improved by later philosophers.