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Translation of the seminal 1877 paper by Ludwig Boltzmann which for the first time established the probabilistic basis of entropy. Includes a scientific commentary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A century ago, George Hartley Bryan (1864-1928) published his classic book, Stability in Aviation. I draw together some strands from events that awakened his interest in the nascent science of aviation, in particular the stability of flight. Prominent among those who influenced him was Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906), who held Bryan in high esteem for his contributions to thermodynamics and kinetic theory. I argue that the seeds of Bryan's interest in aviation were sown at the British Association meeting at Oxford in the summer of 1894, at which Boltzmann was guest of honor. A joint discussion between Section A (Mathematical and Physical Science) and Section G (Mechanical Science) was devoted to the problems of flight, during the course of which Boltzmann revealed a hitherto unsuspected enthusiasm for flying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ludwig Boltzmann’s work in theoretical physics exhibits an approach to the construction of theory that he transmitted to the succeeding generation by example. It involved the construction of clear models, allowed more than one, and was not based solely on the existing facts, with the intent of examining and criticizing the assumptions that made each model work. This tacit program influenced physicists like Ehrenfest and Einstein and the philosopher Wittgenstein, suggesting ways that they used to make further advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two complementary debates of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century are examined here: the debate on the legitimacy of hypotheses in the natural sciences and the debate on intentionality and ‘representations without object’ in philosophy. Both are shown to rest on two core issues: the attitude of the subject and the mode of presentation chosen to display a domain of phenomena. An orientation other than the one which contributed to shape twentieth-century philosophy of science is explored through the analysis of the role given to assumptions in Boltzmann’s research strategy, where assumptions are contrasted to hypotheses, axioms, and principles, and in Meinong’s criticism of the privileged status attributed to representations in mental activities. Boltzmann’s computational style in mathematics and Meinong’s criticism of the confusion between representation and judgment give prominence to an indirect mode of presentation, adopted in a state of suspended belief which is characteristic of assumptions and which enables one to grasp objects that cannot be reached through direct representation or even analogies. The discussion shows how assumptions and the movement to fiction can be essential steps in the quest for objectivity. The conclusion restates the issues of the two debates in a contemporary perspective and shows how recent developments in philosophy of science and philosophy of language and mind can be brought together by arguing for a twofold conception of reference. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Josef Loschmidt (1821–1895) and Josef Stefan (1835–1893) were eminent scientists in the Institute of Physics at the University of Vienna during the second half of the nineteenth century but are not well known today, as their legacies have been recognized differently by the scientific community. Loschmidt first described the structure of the benzene molecule and determined the size of air molecules, from which the number of molecules per unit volume can easily be determined, yet others received the credit for these achievements. Stefan posited the fourth-power temperature radiation law, but neither he nor his student Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) calculated the proportionality constant now known as the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. These are instances of Stigler’s Law of Eponymy. Besides these achievements, perhaps the greatest unheralded contribution of both Loschmidt and Stefan was the experimental evidence they provided in support of the emerging kinetic theory of gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the less known aspects of the work of Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) is that he was an advocate of aviation, one of the most challenging technological problems at the end of the 19th century. Boltzmann followed the work of the flight pioneers Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896), Wilhelm Kress (1836–1913), and Hiram S. Maxim (1840–1916) closely, and in a lecture in Vienna in 1894 and in a article in a Viennese newspaper in 1896 he advocated the provision of financial support for research in this field. I discuss Boltzmann’s involvement in aviation, and his related correspondence with Lilienthal and Kress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific legacy of the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1884-1906) has been one of the most extensive and complete in the modern period. It was developed in the context of profound transformations in the conceptions of the scientists about the classical theories. His scientific labour was a bridge between the Newtonism and the new Physics (quantistic and relativistic Physics). His research in statistical mechanist, Thermodynamics and Electromagnetism would be enough for considering him one of the most important physicists of the final of the XIX century and the early XX century. Additionally, his scientific work in Physics was complemented with important contributions to the Philosophy of Science, the debate concerning the scientific theories, the role of the hypothesis and the validity of the classical mechanics as an absolute method in Science. His polemics with the main supporters of the Empire criticism and Energetism, were key points in the demolition of the pseudo-scientific positions and besides, in the ending of the "Physics Crisis". Moreover, Boltzmann a long his life performed an intense pedagogical labour in some of the main Austrian universities. The last statement demonstrates the extension and depth of his intellect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]