Conservation and Innovation : Helmholtz's Struggle with Energy ...

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other seven eighths are lost in the form of heat: "the human body is a better machine than the steam engine, only its fuel is more expensive than the fuel of steam engines" 331. But despite the fact that we cannot yet prove that the work produced by living bodies is a total equivalent of the chemical forces which have been set into action, still "I think we may consider it as extremely probable that the law of the conservation of force holds good for living bodies" 332. Finally the "vital principle" is disregarded, in that, if there is complete conservation of force, the physical forces in the living body cannot be removed and again set in action at any moment by the influence of the vital principle. In fact conservation of force can exist only in those systems in which the forces in action (like all the forces of inorganic nature) have always the same intensity and direction if the circumstances under which they act are the same. Indeed Helmholtz can claim that in a few years the principle has completely modified the view of life phenomena, and that a general unified approach to physical, cosmological and physiological phenomena has been achieved. In November 1862 Helmholtz became Pro-Rector of Heidelberg University and on this occasion delivered a talk on "The Relation of Natural Sciences to Science in General" 333. After analysing the differences of the Kantian epistemological approach and that of Schelling and Hegel, Helmholtz recalls and expands some of the ideas already expressed in the Introduction to the 1847 Erhaltung. Natural science cannot be satisfied with a collection of facts: it requires the law that rules them and the corresponding causes. There is a difference between artistic and logical induction : free will implies the impossibility of reducing our psychological expressions to a rigid law. One of the deep differences between natural sciences and human sciences is exactly this : the former can attain quite general rules and laws , the latter judge on the basis of a psychological sensibility. Human sciences cannot unify observations and 331 Helmholtz "Organic Nature" p. 332 Ibidem 333 Helmholtz, Hermann. "Ueber das Verhältniss der Naturwissenschaften zur Gesammtheit der Wissenschaften". Rectoratsrede. Heidelberger Universitätsprogramm 1862. Rep. in Populäre Wissenschaftliche Vorträge 1st vol. Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1865 (and following editions); translated in English as "On the relation of the physical sciences to science in general" in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1871, p.217-234; reproduced in PL 1873 (and following editions); also in R.Kahl SW.
experiences in general laws of unlimited validity and extraordinarily great extension. There is no doubt that looking at nature means to look at a series of rigorous causal connections, without exceptions. The effort to find a causal connection everywhere, or to assume it, is one of the features and lessons of natural sciences. These remarks on causal laws are a leitmotiv of Helmholtz's analysis of energy conservation. He will in fact discuss the topic in 1862, 1864 and later again. Again the unifying power of reason is at the root of the next series of lectures, whose introductory talk still bears a famous title: "Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft" 334. Mentioned in a letter to W.Thomson on the 14th of December 1862 335, they were given in Karlsruhe in the winter of 1862-63 and again, as mentioned in a letter to Ludwig of the 27th of February 1864 336, "in London at Easter in English" to an audience of "three hundred, and among them a number of scientific men" 337. Helmholtz's point of departure in the talk is completely philosophical, with a strong inclination towards neo-Kantianism. Helmholtz first refers to the element of distinction between natural and mental sciences as outlined in the previous work 338: the special conformity with laws of natural phenomena. It has 334 Helmholtz, Hermann. "Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft." In Populäre Wissenschaftliche Vorträge 2nd vol. Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1871. A summary of the English talks: "Lectures on the Conservation of Energy. Delivered at the Royal Institution." was published in the Medical Times and Gazette vol 1, 1864; a German version appeared with a preface in the 1871 Populäre Wissenschaftliche Vorträge (and following editions), of which an English translation by E.Atkinson: "On the Conservation of Force"was included in 1873 Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects (and following editions). Quotations here are from this translation. In the preface to the 1884 Vorträge und Reden we are told that of this series the only other existing revised talk is: "Ueber die Entstehung des Planetensystems" in Populäre Wissenschaftliche Vorträge 1876, Vol 3 (and following editions),translated in Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects 1881 (and following edition). p.225. 335 Koenigsberger H v H p.214. 336 Koenigsberger H v H p.220. 337 Helmholtz to Du Bois-Reymond, May 15 1864, quoted in Koenigsberger H v H 338 Helmholtz, Hermann. "On the relation" see n.333.
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Fabio Bevilacqua Conservation and I
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different formulations 4 and priori
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and interesting results, despite th
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principle of correlation is express
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principle to the existing empirical
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the origin and meaning of the princ
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Whether physiological research, apa
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In a discussion on the origins of a
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his "Wärme" that one of the differ
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generate a determined equivalent of
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"Bericht", despite the application
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experiments in the most disparate b
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The premise reveals that the struct
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intelligible if it can be referred
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elevant consequence of the deductio
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Needless to say the plan was to be
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and from here that the direction an
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since Leonardo 113; the "ad nihilum
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But unfortunately for the whole str
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force principle 522. Elkana tried t
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Blüh, Otto. "The Value of Inspirat
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Graetz, L. "Das Mechanische Wärme
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Helmholtz, Hermann. "Bericht über
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Helmholtz, Hermann. Wissenschaftlic
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Madison: Wisconsin U.P., 1959. Pp.
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Poincarè, Henry. Electricité et O
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Yagi, Eri."Clausius's Mathematical
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