[1977] Hermann von Helmholtz in the History of Scientific Method In 1921 the centenary of
Helmholtz' birth Paul Hertz a physicist and Moritz Schlick a philosopher published a
selection of his papers and lectures on the philosophical foundations of the sciences under
the title Schriften zur Erkenntnistheorie. Combining qualities of respect and criticism that
Helmholtz would have demanded Hertz and Schlick scrupulously annotated the texts. Their
edition of Helmholtz was of historical influence comparable to the influence among
contemporary mathematicians and philosophers of Hermann Weyl's annotated edition in 1919 of
Riemann's great dissertation of 1854 on the foundations of geometry. For several reasons we
are pleased to be able to bring this Schlick Hertz edition to the English-reading world: first
and primary to honor the memory of Hermann von Helmholtz second as writings of historical
value to deepen the understanding of mathematics and the natural sciences as well as of
psychology and philosophy in the 19th centur- for Helmholtz must be comprehended within at
least that wide a range third with Schlick to understand the developing empiricist
philosophy of science in the early 20th century and fourth to bring the contributions of
Schlick Hertz and Helmholtz to methodological debate in our own time a half century later
long after the rise and consolidation of logical empiricism the explosion of physics since
Planck and Einstein and the development of psychology since Freud and Pavlov.
