PhilSci Archive

Why Einstein did not believe that General Relativity geometrizes gravity

Lehmkuhl, Dennis (2013) Why Einstein did not believe that General Relativity geometrizes gravity. [Preprint]

[img]
Preview
PDF
Lehmkuhl_Einstein_Geometrization.pdf

Download (231kB)

Abstract

I argue that, contrary to folklore, Einstein never really cared for geometrizing the gravitational or (subsequently) the electromagnetic field; indeed, he thought that the very statement that General Relativity geometrizes gravity "is not saying anything at all". Instead, I shall show that Einstein saw the "unification" of inertia and gravity as one of the major achievements of General Relativity. Interestingly, Einstein did not locate this unification in the field equations but in his interpretation of the geodesic equation, the law of motion of test particles.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Lehmkuhl, Dennisdennis.lehmkuhl@uni-wuppertal.de
Keywords: General Relativity, Einstein, Geometrization, Unification, Inertia, Gravity, Geodesic Equation, Meyerson
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User: Dr Dennis Lehmkuhl
Date Deposited: 11 Jun 2013 18:53
Last Modified: 11 Jun 2013 18:53
Item ID: 9825
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date: 2013
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9825

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item