Darstellungen nos Princípios da Mecânica e no Tractatus : a representação dos objetos e a figuração do mundo em Hertz e em Wittgenstein

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is based on the defense of the hypothesis that there are remarkable influences of the physicist Heinrich Hertz s thinking, especially his The Principles of Mechanics (1894), on the Wittgenstein s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922). From a series of occasions in which Wittgenstein quotes Hertz, it was proposed here to ascertain what extent this could be sustained. Thus, we tried to display Hertz s thinking within a context in which he involves with the analysis and discussions of the mechanics that were previous to Hertz, proposing a kind of purification of these mechanics, presenting his own image. His intention was to present a unique image from which what he calls pseudo-concepts could be understood; that is, force and energy. From this image, it is argued here, Wittgenstein makes use of its substantial elements (material particle, material point and system) in order to construct his ontology as well as the Hertzian notion that we form facts to ourselves . Besides, with his notion of metaphorical network, he uses a Hertzian procedure to determine the operation of a mechanical system through coordinates about Wittgenstein, determining singularity and the non-priority of a scientific theory over the other. However, at no time it is said that Wittgenstein provided some kind of improvement regarding the mechanics of Hertz because it would suggest that both were dealing with the same subjects within the same scope which, obviously, did not occur and Wittgenstein was aware of that. What Wittgenstein does is a reapplication of the elements of the mechanics of Hertz, in a diverse scope, in order to provide his philosophy with determination, generality and formal independence. The importance of this thesis lies in demonstrating that the tribute of the first to the second is permissible.