Boltzmann on mathematics (Q1973311)

In the winter semester of 1903/1904 Boltzmann gave a series of 18 lectures on the philosophy of nature at Vienna university. Two first lectures were introductory and the next sixteen were mainly devoted to mathematics as a basic tool of theoretical physics. There exist some notes from Boltzmann himself and apparently a literal transcription by an unknown person of what he actually said. Both were published in the original German in 1990 [\textit{I. M. Fasol-Boltzmann} (ed.), Ludwig Boltzmann, Prinzipien der Naturfilosofi. Lectures of Natural Philosophy 1903-1906. Springer (1990)]. Relying upon that publication, this paper offers an overview of lectures 3-18. In the first part of the paper there are highlights from Boltzmann's analysis of mathematics, centered upon concepts of number and of space and with a few of his comments on philosophy revealing his strong empirical attitude, together with some of the comments author. The second part is a brief historical study on Boltzmann and atomism, stressing his preference of discreteness and discontinuity to continuity theories. The final part, an epilogue, is on Boltzmann's love of music. Some bibliography follows.