Ernst Mach vs. Herbert Spencer
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
Ernst Mach
1838 – 1916
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was an Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honor. As a philosopher of science, he was a major influence on logical positivism and American pragmatism. Through his criticism of Isaac Newton's theories of space and time, he foreshadowed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
"Mathematical and physiological researches have shown that the space of experience is simply an actual case of many conceivable cases, about whose peculiar prope…"
Herbert Spencer
1820 – 1903
Herbert Spencer was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.
"Review materials for studying Herbert Spencer"
Connections
Both wrote about: