Background
Philipp Frank was born on March 20, 1884, in Vienna, Austria. He was the son of Ignaz and Jenny (Feilendorf) Frank.
Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien, Austria
Philipp studied physics at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1907 with a thesis in theoretical physics under the supervision of Ludwig Boltzmann.
educator mathematician philosopher physicist
Philipp Frank was born on March 20, 1884, in Vienna, Austria. He was the son of Ignaz and Jenny (Feilendorf) Frank.
Philipp studied physics at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1907 with a thesis in theoretical physics under the supervision of Ludwig Boltzmann.
From the beginning, Frank was intrigued by Poincare’s neo-Kantian idea that many basic principles of science are purely conventional. In 1907 Frank took the bold step of using that idea to analyze the law of causality. This paper attracted Einstein’s attention and started a lasting friendship. In 1912 Einstein’s recommended Frank as his successor as professor of theoretical physics at the German University of Prague, a position Frank held until 1938. Frank’s original paper on causality was later expanded into his widely influential work Das Kausalgestz und seine Grenzen. In 1947 Frank Published an authoritative biography, Einstein: His Life and Times.
Frank saw it as a misfortune that science and philosophy are widely regarded as unrelated and incongruous. But it was also his conviction that this breach between a scientific and a humanist orientation toward life - a breach that he thought to be of relatively recent origin - could be diministhed, if not overcome, by an adequate philosophy of science.
Holding that the meaning and validity of theoretical assumptions can be determined only if detailed consideration is given to the verifiable consequences which the assumptions entail, Frank called attention to certain misinterpretations of relativity theory and quantum mechanics and their fallacious use in support of questionable doctrines. The titles of some of his works indicate these concerns: Interpretations and Misinterpretations of Modern physics and The Link Between Science and Philosophy.
In 1938 Frank came to the United States. After serving as a visiting lecturer, he remained as a lecturer on physics and mathematics at Harvard, where his influential course on the philosophy of science, his erudite mastery, and his warm and witty manner were remembered long after his retirement in 1954.
Frank was a logical positivist, although a less doctrinaire one than many of those with whom he formed the Vienna circle in the 1920’s. The breadth of interest which he exhibited in his work and fostered in his students made science a liberal discipline and reflected a style of life as well as of mind. As he once remarked, he sought always to achieve a balanced outlook on man and nature; and for him, physics not only provided reliable answers to particular technical problems but also raised and illuminated important questions concerning the nature, scope, and validity of human knowledge. Indeed, Frank believed that a stable perspective on life can best be achieved through the critical, intellectual method of modern natural science.
Frank married Hania Gerson on November 16, 1920.