Common frontiers of the exact sciences and the humanities (Q1976339)

The science of mechanics was the first topic of physics to achieve the status of a comprehensive theory. In the 19th century it was tried to explain thermodynamic by mechanics and to reduce optics to electromagnetic theory. Social and humanistic disciplines and economics use mechanical models, too. In the given paper it is discussed how tools of social and humanistic sciences came to inspire and motivate investigators in the physical sciences to take a deeper look at processes that occur in nature. The physicist Franz Serafin Exner was a prominent Austrian spokesman for this new development. The Exner circle found its inspiration in the intellectual world of Ludwig Boltzmann. Oswald Spengler's ``Decline of the World'' provided Exner with the opportunity to sharpen his support for the new trends in physics. Helmholtz and Jevons brought in the discussion a reductive methodology that stands in contrast to that of Exner. The paper described the situation of physics in Austria at the end of the 19th century: probability, chance and Austrian revolt in classical mechanics (the title of a chapter of this paper!).