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How Hume and Mach Helped Einstein Find Special Relativity

Norton, John D. (2004) How Hume and Mach Helped Einstein Find Special Relativity. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In recounting his discovery of special relativity, Einstein recalled a debt to the philosophical writings of Hume and Mach. I review the path Einstein took to special relativity and urge that, at a critical juncture, he was aided decisively not by any specific doctrine of space and time, but by a general account of concepts that Einstein found in Hume and Mach’s writings. That account required that concepts, used to represent the physical, must be properly grounded in experience. In so far as they extended beyond that grounding, they were fictional and to be abjured (Mach) or at best tolerated (Hume). Einstein drew a different moral. These fictional concepts revealed an arbitrariness in our physical theorizing and may still be introduced through freely chosen definitions, as long as these definitions do not commit us to false presumptions. After years of failed efforts to conform electrodynamics to the principle of relativity and with his frustration mounting, Einstein applied this account to the concept of simultaneity. The resulting definition of simultaneity provided the reconceptualization that solved the problem in electrodynamics and led directly to the special theory of relativity.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Norton, John D.
Additional Information: For updates, see http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton
Keywords: Einstein Hume Mach concepts time simultaneity
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
General Issues > Conventionalism
General Issues > Logical Positivism/Logical Empiricism
Depositing User: John Norton
Date Deposited: 13 Jan 2005
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:13
Item ID: 2149
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
General Issues > Conventionalism
General Issues > Logical Positivism/Logical Empiricism
Date: October 2004
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2149

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