Cartesian Spacetime
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| Author | : E. Slowik |
| Publisher | : Springer Science & Business Media |
| Total Pages | : 253 |
| Release | : 2013-03-14 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 9401709750 |
Although Descartes' natural philosophy marked an advance in the development of modern science, many critics over the years, such as Newton, have rejected his particular `relational' theory of space and motion. Nevertheless, it is also true that most historians and philosophers have not sufficiently investigated the viability of the Cartesian theory. This book explores, consequently, the success of the arguments against Descartes' theory of space and motion by determining if it is possible to formulate a version that can eliminate its alleged problems. In essence, this book comprises the first sustained attempt to construct a consistent `Cartesian' spacetime theory: that is, a theory of space and time that consistently incorporates Descartes' various physical and metaphysical concepts. Intended for students in the history of philosophy and science, this study reveals the sophisticated insights, and often quite successful elements, in Descartes' unjustly neglected relational theory of space and motion.
| Author | : James A. Foster |
| Publisher | : Springer Science & Business Media |
| Total Pages | : 295 |
| Release | : 2010-04-30 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 0387275835 |
Suitable for a one-semester course in general relativity for senior undergraduates or beginning graduate students, this text clarifies the mathematical aspects of Einstein's theory of relativity without sacrificing physical understanding.
| Author | : David Marshall Miller |
| Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
| Total Pages | : 251 |
| Release | : 2014-08-07 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1107046734 |
Using an integrated philosophical and historical approach, this book explores the fundamental shift in understandings of space in the scientific revolution.
| Author | : Vesselin Petkov |
| Publisher | : Springer Science & Business Media |
| Total Pages | : 320 |
| Release | : 2009-06-23 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 3642019625 |
Puts the emphasis on conceptual questions: Why is there no such thing as absolute motion? What is the physical meaning of relativity of simultaneity? But, the most important question that is addressed in this book is "what is the nature of spacetime?" or, equivalently, "what is the dimensionality of the world at the macroscopic level?" Develops answers to these questions via a thorough analysis of relativistic effects and explicitly asking whether the objects involved in those effects are three-dimensional or four-dimensional. Discusses the implication of the result (this analysis clearly shows that if the world and the physical objects were three-dimensional, none of the kinematic relativistic effects and the experimental evidence supporting them would be possible) for physics, philosophy, and our entire world view are discussed.
| Author | : Joseph K. Cosgrove |
| Publisher | : Springer |
| Total Pages | : 198 |
| Release | : 2018-05-23 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 3319726315 |
In 1908, three years after Einstein first published his special theory of relativity, the mathematician Hermann Minkowski introduced his four-dimensional “spacetime” interpretation of the theory. Einstein initially dismissed Minkowski’s theory, remarking that “since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself anymore.” Yet Minkowski’s theory soon found wide acceptance among physicists, including eventually Einstein himself, whose conversion to Minkowski’s way of thinking was engendered by the realization that he could profitably employ it for the formulation of his new theory of gravity. The validity of Minkowski’s mathematical “merging” of space and time has rarely been questioned by either physicists or philosophers since Einstein incorporated it into his theory of gravity. Physicists often employ Minkowski spacetime with little regard to the whether it provides a true account of the physical world as opposed to a useful mathematical tool in the theory of relativity. Philosophers sometimes treat the philosophy of space and time as if it were a mere appendix to Minkowski’s theory. In this critical study, Joseph Cosgrove subjects the concept of spacetime to a comprehensive examination and concludes that Einstein’s initial assessment of Minkowksi was essentially correct.
| Author | : Lawrence Sklar |
| Publisher | : Univ of California Press |
| Total Pages | : 438 |
| Release | : 2023-07-28 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 0520340701 |
In this book, Lawrence Sklar demonstrates the interdependence of science and philosophy by examining a number of crucial problems on the nature of space and time—problems that require for their resolution the resources of philosophy and of physics. The overall issues explored are our knowledge of the geometry of the world, the existence of spacetime as an entity over and above the material objects of the world, the relation between temporal order and causal order, and the problem of the direction of time. Without neglecting the most subtle philosophical points or the most advanced contributions of contemporary physics, the author has taken pains to make his explorations intelligible to the reader with no advanced training in physics, mathematics, or philosophy. The arguments are set forth step-by-step, beginning from first principles; and the philosophical discussions are supplemented in detail by nontechnical expositions of crucial features of physical theories.
| Author | : Edward Slowik |
| Publisher | : Springer |
| Total Pages | : 356 |
| Release | : 2016-10-12 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 3319448684 |
This volume explores the inadequacies of the two standard conceptions of space or spacetime, substantivalism and relationism, and in the process, proposes a new historical interpretation of these physical theories. This book also examines and develops alternative ontological conceptions of space, and explores additional historical elements of seventeenth century theories and other metaphysical themes. The author first discusses the two main opposing theories of the ontology of space. One, known as substantivalism, proposes space to be an entity that can exist independently of material things. The other, relationism, contends that space is a relation among material things. Readers will learn about specific problems with this dichotomy. First, Newton and Leibniz are often upheld as the retrospective forerunners of substantivalism and relationism. But, their work often contradicts the central tenets of these views. Second, these theories have proven problematic when transferred to a modern setting, especially with regards to general relativity and the recent quantum gravity hypotheses. The author details an alternative set of concepts that address these problems. The author also develops a new classificational system that provides a more accurate taxonomy for the elements of all spatial ontologies. This classification obtains successful analogies between Newton, Leibniz, and other natural philosophers with contemporary physical theories.
| Author | : O. Costa-de-Beauregard |
| Publisher | : Springer Science & Business Media |
| Total Pages | : 354 |
| Release | : 2012-12-06 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 940093811X |
In an age characterized by impersonality and a fear of individuality this book is indeed unusual. It is personal, individualistic and idiosyncratic - a record of the scientific adventure of a single mind. Most scientific writing today is so depersonalized that it is impossible to recognize the man behind the work, even when one knows him. Costa de Beauregard's scientific career has focused on three domains - special relativity, statistics and irreversibility, and quantum mechanics. In Time, the Physical Magnitude he has provided a personal vade mecum to those problems, concepts, and ideas with which he has been so long preoccupied. Some years ago we were struck by a simple and profound observa tion of Mendel Sachs, the gist of which follows. Relativity is based on very simple ideas but, because it requires highly complicated mathe matics, people find it difficult. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, derives from very complicated principles but, since its mathematics is straightforward, people feel they understand it. In some ways they are like the bourgeois gentilhomme of Moliere in that they speak quantum mechanics without knowing what it is. Costa de Beauregard recognizes the complexity of quantum mechanics. A great virtue of the book is that he does not hide or shy away from the complexity. He exposes it fully while presenting his ideas in a non-dogmatic way.
| Author | : George Jaroszkiewicz |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 323 |
| Release | : 2016 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 0198718063 |
Provides a broad survey of many of these views, these Images of Time, covering historical, cultural, philosophical, biological, mathematical and physical Images of Time, including classical and quantum mechanics, special and general relativity and cosmology.
| Author | : Josef Janyška |
| Publisher | : Springer Nature |
| Total Pages | : 831 |
| Release | : 2022-04-06 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 3030895890 |
This book deals with an original contribution to the hypothetical missing link unifying the two fundamental branches of physics born in the twentieth century, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Namely, the book is devoted to a review of a "covariant approach" to Quantum Mechanics, along with several improvements and new results with respect to the previous related literature. The first part of the book deals with a covariant formulation of Galilean Classical Mechanics, which stands as a suitable background for covariant Quantum Mechanics. The second part deals with an introduction to covariant Quantum Mechanics. Further, in order to show how the presented covariant approach works in the framework of standard Classical Mechanics and standard Quantum Mechanics, the third part provides a detailed analysis of the standard Galilean space-time, along with three dynamical classical and quantum examples. The appendix accounts for several non-standard mathematical methods widely used in the body of the book.
