Joseph Petzoldt and the Systematization of Ernst Mach's Philosophy

Ernst Mach’s claim that the objects are bundles of sensation was (and still is) widely interpreted in a phenomenalistic sense, as if he was asserting that perceptual experiences is the only reality. The paper will reconstruct the philosophical system of Mach’s pupil Joseph Petzoldt, to propose a different interpretation of Mach’s work, that put it into the wider context of the polemic against the widespread neo-Kantianism of that time.