Franz Selety

Franz Selety (until 1918 Franz Josef Jeiteles , born March 2, 1893 in Dresden ; missing since August 22, 1923 ) was an Austrian philosopher  and cosmologist .

Life

Franz Selety was born in Dresden in 1893 as Franz Josef Jeiteles as an Austrian citizen. In 1894 or 1895 the family moved to Vienna . The family was probably well off and valued education and culture. Selety attended the kk Maximilians-Gymnasium (today: Wasagymnasium ) in the 9th district , where he graduated in 1911. Even at school he developed an interest in philosophy and therefore studied philosophy at the University of Vienna from the winter semester of 1911/12 . In addition to lectures from philosophy and psychology, he also attended lectures from physics and mathematics and was interested in basic theoretical questions in psychology, metaphysical and cosmological problems and the methodology of physics. His teachers probably included Adolf Stöhr , Heinrich Gomperz , Friedrich Jodl , Stefan Meyer , Ernst Lecher , Felix Ehrenhaft , Eduard Haschek  and Gustav von Escherich, among others .

In the winter semester of 1913/14 he was enrolled at the University of Leipzig and also attended lectures in philosophy, psychology and physics with Wilhelm Wundt , Theodor des Coudres , Johannes Volkelt , Otto Klemm and Otto Wiener , among others . He then continued his studies in Vienna. During his studies, he published some works in philosophical journals and took part in the fifth competition of the Kant Society . His contribution was criticized in parts, but still received an "honorable mention".

In 1915 Selety submitted his dissertation The Phenomenological Foundations of Psychology. A representation of the main things of consciousness . His doctoral supervisor Stöhr and the second reviewer Robert Reininger recommended admission to the Rigorosum , but not the publication of the dissertation. On December 22, 1915, he received his doctorate in philosophy. As a pacifist, military service in World War I made difficult for him; he came to the hospital and was eventually declared unfit.

He published his work under the "writer's name" Selety, in 1918 the name was also officially changed by the authorities by decree, since he would have to fear disadvantages due to the "ridiculous sound" of the name Jeiteles in view of the rampant anti-Semitism in Austria .

In the years after his doctorate, he did not have a job, but devoted himself to private studies and continued to attend lectures at the University of Vienna. Since 1917 he was in correspondence with Albert Einstein about the hierarchical model of the universe he had developed. A work submitted to the Annalen der Physik in 1923 and published in 1924 and a letter to Einstein dated July 30, 1923 are the last works of Selety. He has been missing since August 22, 1923, when he was on a vacation trip to Salzburg.

Cosmological model

Similar to Carl Charlier  before him, Selety designed an infinite hierarchical world model based on Newtonian physics , i.e. without taking into account general relativity and Mach's principle, and tried to rebut Einstein's relativistic universe and his objections to an infinite Newtonian universe. His infinitely large universe had infinite mass, an infinite number of stars in clusters , but nonetheless an average density of zero and no prominent center. Selety's model was  taken up by others, including Émile Borel . Einstein, who was convinced of a static and finite universe, did not comment on it after an initial reply. Hierarchical world models were discussed again in the 1990s when it came to explaining the formation of galaxy clusters .

Publications

• The real facts of pure experience, a critique of time. In: Journal for Philosophy and Philosophical Criticism, Volume 152 (1913), pp. 78–93
• About the repetition of the same thing in cosmic events, as a result of the psychological law of the threshold. In: Journal for Philosophy and Philosophical Criticism, Volume 155 (1914), pp. 185–205
• The perception of the geometric figures. In: Archive for Systematic Philosophy, Volume 21 (1915), pp. 49–58
• Contributions to the cosmological problem. In: Annalen der Physik, Volume 68 (1922), pp. 281–334
• Reply to Einstein's remarks about my work “Contributions to the Cosmological Problem”. In: Annalen der Physik, Volume 72 (1923), pp. 58-66
• Une distribution of the masses avec une densité moyenne nulle, sans centré de gravité. In: Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (Paris), Volume 177 (1923), pp. 104-106
• Possibility d'un potentiel infini, et d'une vitesse moyenne de toutes les étoiles égale à celle de la lumière. In: Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (Paris), Volume 177 (1923), pp. 250-252
• Infinity of space and general relativity. In: Annalen der Physik, Volume 73 (1924), pp. 291-325

literature

• Helge Kragh: Selety, Franz. In: Thomas Hockey et al. (Ed.): Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , Springer, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-4419-9916-0 , pp. 1975–1976. doi : 10.1007 / 978-1-4419-9917-7_9385 , arxiv : 1208.3114
• Tobias Jung: Franz Selety (1893–1933?). His cosmological work and the correspondence with Einstein. In: Hilmar W. Duerbeck, Wolfgang R. Dick (eds.): Einstein's cosmos. Studies on the history of cosmology, the theory of relativity and Einstein's work and aftermath. (Acta Historica Astronomiae, Vol. 27) Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-8171-1770-3 , pp. 125-141
• Peter Havas: Einstein, Relativity and Gravitation Research in Vienna before 1938. In: Hubert Goenner et al. (Ed.): The Expanding Worlds of General Relativity. Einstein Studies Vol. 7, Birkhäuser, Boston 1999, ISBN 0-8176-4060-6 , p. 182 ( digitized in the Google book search)
• Stephan Mittler:  Dr. Franz Selety. (Missed since August 22, 1923). In:  Arbeiter-Zeitung , July 4, 1925, p. 11 (online at ANNO ).