Foundations of Space-Time Theories: Relativistic Physics and Philosophy of Science

by Michael Friedman

This book, explores the conceptual foundations of Einstein's theory of relativity: the fascinating, yet tangled, web of philosophical, mathematical, and physical ideas that is the source of the theory's enduring philosophical interest.

Genres: Physics, Philosophy, Science

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Michael Friedman was an American philosopher who was Emeritus Patrick Suppes Professor of Philosophy of Science and Professor, by courtesy, of German Studies at Stanford University. Friedman was best known for his work in the philosophy of science, especially on scientific explanation and the philosophy of physics, and for his historical work on Immanuel Kant. Friedman has done historical work on figures in continental philosophy such as Martin Heidegger and Ernst Cassirer. He also served as the co-director of the Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at Stanford University.

Reviews

[saml · Rating 2 out of 5]

i will never understand the philosophy of physics

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will be re reading parts of this again, but it provides a good philosophical overview of space-time physics, and clarifies some of the differences in the positions and shows clearly how general relativity by no means completed the vision of a purely relationalist view of space and time, but instead contains still absolute elements. The merely local "flatness" or geodesic nature of space-time within the system of general relativities covariant equations, cannot be extended out to the fullness of space and time. Mass/energy inertia of bodies remains as an extra set of assumptions in the system that cannot be reduced purely to the arrangement of bodies in space and time. Instead, these two are stitched together through the use of tensors and affine connections.