Ernst Mach - Analysis of Sensations

The physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (for whom the unit of velocity as compared to the speed of sound was named), brings us today’s episode, based on his book: The Analysis of Sensations. In this book, March argues that our understanding of the world is based on our sensations and that physical objects are merely thought-symbols for complex combinations of these sensations. Mach rejects the distinction between mind and matter, and emphasizes the economical nature of science, suggesting that scientific theories should be as simple and efficient as possible.This view of the world is very well represented in Mach’s famous “self portrait” where he depicts “himself” as his visual field of view. This radical approach says that, yes, 3rd party observers would paint a portrait of us as a person with a head, arms and legs (assuming that observer were at a distance of a few feet away) — but for ourselves, what we see is what we are at the moment. Mach argues that the series of first-person perceptions which we have throughout our lives is what we use the shortcut/symbol “I” to mean, even though the person we were as a baby and the person we are now are clearly very different looking and having very different experiences. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit headlessdeepdive.substack.com