Petkov, Vesselin (2008) Conventionality of Simultaneity and Reality. [Preprint]
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Abstract
An important epistemological lesson can be learned from the impossibility to determine the one-way velocity of light and the immediate implication that simultaneity is conventional. The vicious circle -- to determine whether two distant events are simultaneous we need to know the one-way velocity of light between them, but to determine the one-way velocity of light we need to know that the two events are simultaneous -- is an indication of the need for a profound change of our view on reality.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Additional Information: | To appear in: D. Dieks (ed.), The Ontology of Spacetime II (Elsevier, Amsterdam 2008); "Philosophy and Foundations of Physics" Series, Volume 4, pp. 175-185. | ||||||
Keywords: | One-way velocity of light, conventionality of simultaneity, spacetime, dimensionality of the world | ||||||
Subjects: | General Issues > Philosophers of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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Depositing User: | Vesselin Petkov | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 14 Apr 2008 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 07 Oct 2010 15:16 | ||||||
Item ID: | 3986 | ||||||
Subjects: | General Issues > Philosophers of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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Date: | August 2008 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3986 |
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