The Philosophy of Science of Ferdinand Braun

Abstract

The Nobel Prize winner Karl Ferdinand Braun has not left anyconsiderable writings on the philosophy of science. Nevertheless, hisphilosophical excursions help us to understand his creative work in physics and the philosophical positions of his disciples. Braun emphasized the fundamental position of the so-called “integral laws” to which the law of conservation of energy belongs. He was a consecutive empiricist and emphasized the relativity of physical schemes and models with respect to experimental devices. I n the style of some German physicists he proclaimed the oscillatory unification of the theory of electricity and optics.

Keywords

• energetism
• engineering
• Kantianism
• Machism
• Naturphilosophie
• radio-physics
• the theory of oscillations