A Foundation for Theoretical Physics in Hertz’s Introduction to Die Prinzipien der Mechanik

Abstract

In reading Hertz’s technical papers on his experiments in Electrodynamics, his reflections on them in his theoretical papers¹ and his Bild conception of physical theory in his most conclusive work², one is led to see a thread which, more or less evident at the beginning and more clearly apparent at the end, interweaves all of Hertz’s thought. (One can also use the term intersections, to indicate the intricacy of themes in this thought.) These interweavings are also manifest on a mere philological level, through the recurrence of certain words and sentences in his writings. The interweavings in Hertz’s works are highlighted in my previous essay on the role played by his 1884 conceptions in his 1888 discovery of contiguous action and electromagnetic waves.