Presenting the history of space-time physics, from Newton to Einstein, as a philosophical as well as a scientific development DiSalle shows that in the revolutionary changes that distinguish that history philosophical arguments have been as crucial as - and, in fact, inseparable from - the empirical arguments for each progressive step. Thus he offers a new appreciation of the development of physics as the source of deeper philosophical understanding of the nature of space and time and its relation to ordinary human experience.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1. Introduction; 2. Absolute motion and the emergence of classical mechanics; 3. Empiricism and apriorism from Kant to Poincaré; 4. The origins of significance of relativity theory; 5. Conclusion.
