Marco Giovanelli
Biographic Data
| ID | 5826146 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marco Giovanelli |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marco |
| FAMILY NAME | Giovanelli |
| SIGNATURE | GIOVANELLI M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Turin |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1342-6476 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
‘Something Entirely Contingent’
Among current endeavours to historicize Kantianism, two prevailing approaches are frequently discussed: Reichenbach’s ‘constitutive, but relative a priori ’ and Cassirer’s ‘regulative, but absolute a priori ’. This paper argues that this opposition is misleading, as it fails to fully appreciate the significant influence of Hermann Cohen in shaping Cassirer’s and, more generally, the ‘Marburg’ interpretation of Kant. The paper aims to demonstrate …
Reichenbach and the prehistory of the dynamical approach to special relativity
The paper aims to revisit Reichenbach's interpretation of special relativity, making two different but interrelated claims: (I) Reichenbach's interpretation is best characterized not as a variant of the conventionalist interpretation, but rather an early form of the dynamical interpretation; (II) Reichenbach offers a more robust version of the dynamical interpretation than contemporary accounts. On this basis, the paper argues that Reichenbach's …
Cassirer and the Arithmetization of Physics
Drawing an explicit parallel with Felix Klein’s account of the arithmetization of nineteenth-century mathematics, Ernst Cassirer maintains that nineteenth-century physics likewise underwent a process of arithmetization that culminated in the twentieth-century. This paper argues that this constitutes an original insight and a unifying thread running through Cassirer’s philosophy of physics over several decades, one that has yet to receive adequate…
The tensor calculus knows physics better than the physicist’
Gaston Bachelard's La valeur inductive de la relativité is arguably his most overlooked work. This paper argues that, nevertheless, it represents a noteworthy contribution to the early history of the philosophical interpretation of general relativity. In particular, Bachelard deserves recognition for identifying the central importance of the comma-goes-to-semicolon rule, referenced in modern textbooks: The principle of general relativity demands …
The philosophical coming of age of science. Euler’s role in Cassirer’s early philosophy of space and time
Cassirer's early philosophy of space and time, overshadowed by his later work on relativity, has been scarcely explored in the literature. This paper aims to bridge this gap. It argues that understanding Cassirer's point of view requires acknowledging the pivotal role he attributed to the work of Leonhard Euler in the philosophical 'coming of age' of modern science. Against the Leibniz-Berkeley philosophical plea for the relativity of all motion,…
Variability and substantiality. Kurd Lasswitz, the Marburg school and the neo-Kantian historiography of science
A trained physicist, Kurd Lasswitz (1848-1910) is best known as a novelist, the father of modern German science fiction, and as a historian of science, the initiator of the modern historiography of atomism. In the late 19th century, Lasswitz engaged in an intense dialogue with the emerging Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, contributing to shaping most of its defining tenets. By the end of the decade, this research had grown into a two-volume Gesc…
Cassirer and energetics
At the turn of the twentieth century, Helm and Ostwald were the most prominent supporters of so-called ‘energetics’, which aimed to unify all physics by employing the sole concept of energy, without relying on mechanical models. This paper argues that Cassirer's interest in the history of the energy principle and the energetic controversy is entangled with the main themes of his philosophy of physics up to the 1920s: the opposition between the a …
Geometrization vs. unification
This study reconstructs the 1928–1929 correspondence between Reichenbach and Einstein about the latter’s latest distant parallelism-unified field theory, which attracted considerable public attention at the end of the 1920s. Reichenbach, who had recently become a Professor in Berlin, had the opportunity to discuss the theory with Einstein and therefore sent him a manuscript with some comments for feedback. The document has been preserved among Ei…
Motivational Kantianism
‘Like thermodynamics before Boltzmann.’ On the emergence of Einstein's distinction between constructive and principle theories
‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’
Hermann Cohen's Das Princip der Infinitesimal-Methode
‘But one must not legalize the mentioned sin’
Erich Kretschmann as a proto-logical-empiricist
Talking at cross-purposes
Reality and Negation - Kant's Principle of Anticipations of Perception
Reality and Negation - Kant's Principle of Anticipations of Perception
Erich Kretschmann as a proto-logical-empiricist
Talking at cross-purposes
‘But one must not legalize the mentioned sin’
‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’
Hermann Cohen's Das Princip der Infinitesimal-Methode
‘Like thermodynamics before Boltzmann.’ On the emergence of Einstein's distinction between constructive and principle theories
Geometrization vs. unification
This study reconstructs the 1928–1929 correspondence between Reichenbach and Einstein about the latter’s latest distant parallelism-unified field theory, which attracted considerable public attention at the end of the 1920s. Reichenbach, who had recently become a Professor in Berlin, had the opportunity to discuss the theory with Einstein and therefore sent him a manuscript with some comments for feedback. The document has been preserved among Ei…
Motivational Kantianism
Cassirer and energetics
At the turn of the twentieth century, Helm and Ostwald were the most prominent supporters of so-called ‘energetics’, which aimed to unify all physics by employing the sole concept of energy, without relying on mechanical models. This paper argues that Cassirer's interest in the history of the energy principle and the energetic controversy is entangled with the main themes of his philosophy of physics up to the 1920s: the opposition between the a …
The philosophical coming of age of science. Euler’s role in Cassirer’s early philosophy of space and time
Cassirer's early philosophy of space and time, overshadowed by his later work on relativity, has been scarcely explored in the literature. This paper aims to bridge this gap. It argues that understanding Cassirer's point of view requires acknowledging the pivotal role he attributed to the work of Leonhard Euler in the philosophical 'coming of age' of modern science. Against the Leibniz-Berkeley philosophical plea for the relativity of all motion,…
Variability and substantiality. Kurd Lasswitz, the Marburg school and the neo-Kantian historiography of science
A trained physicist, Kurd Lasswitz (1848-1910) is best known as a novelist, the father of modern German science fiction, and as a historian of science, the initiator of the modern historiography of atomism. In the late 19th century, Lasswitz engaged in an intense dialogue with the emerging Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, contributing to shaping most of its defining tenets. By the end of the decade, this research had grown into a two-volume Gesc…
‘Something Entirely Contingent’
Among current endeavours to historicize Kantianism, two prevailing approaches are frequently discussed: Reichenbach’s ‘constitutive, but relative a priori ’ and Cassirer’s ‘regulative, but absolute a priori ’. This paper argues that this opposition is misleading, as it fails to fully appreciate the significant influence of Hermann Cohen in shaping Cassirer’s and, more generally, the ‘Marburg’ interpretation of Kant. The paper aims to demonstrate …
Reichenbach and the prehistory of the dynamical approach to special relativity
The paper aims to revisit Reichenbach's interpretation of special relativity, making two different but interrelated claims: (I) Reichenbach's interpretation is best characterized not as a variant of the conventionalist interpretation, but rather an early form of the dynamical interpretation; (II) Reichenbach offers a more robust version of the dynamical interpretation than contemporary accounts. On this basis, the paper argues that Reichenbach's …
Cassirer and the Arithmetization of Physics
Drawing an explicit parallel with Felix Klein’s account of the arithmetization of nineteenth-century mathematics, Ernst Cassirer maintains that nineteenth-century physics likewise underwent a process of arithmetization that culminated in the twentieth-century. This paper argues that this constitutes an original insight and a unifying thread running through Cassirer’s philosophy of physics over several decades, one that has yet to receive adequate…
The tensor calculus knows physics better than the physicist’
Gaston Bachelard's La valeur inductive de la relativité is arguably his most overlooked work. This paper argues that, nevertheless, it represents a noteworthy contribution to the early history of the philosophical interpretation of general relativity. In particular, Bachelard deserves recognition for identifying the central importance of the comma-goes-to-semicolon rule, referenced in modern textbooks: The principle of general relativity demands …
Philosophy (11 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Philosophy, Science, and History (9 works) · Relativity and Gravitational Theory (9 works) · History and Theory of Mathematics (7 works) · Physics (7 works) · Theoretical physics (7 works) · Einstein (6 works) · Theory of relativity (6 works) · Philosophy of science (5 works)