Abstract
Cosgrove lays out the overall task of the book, which is to subject the concept of Minkowski spacetime in relativity theory to a comprehensive critique from a conceptual and historical perspective. Cosgrove first distinguishes the concept of Minkowski spacetime from other senses of the term spacetime and then highlights the essential role of algebraic representation in the constitution of Minkowski spacetime. Finally, Cosgrove delineates the historical task of “desedimenting” the concept of spacetime by recovering its historically constituted sense-structure.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Change history
31 August 2018
A correction has been published.
Notes
- 1.
Quoted in Sommerfeld 1970 [1949], 102. I have been unable to locate the source of Einstein’s remark about “mathematical trickery.” Perhaps it is apocryphal.
- 2.
Einstein 1961 [1916], 63.
- 3.
Petkov 2012, 3–4.
- 4.
Einstein 1979 [1949], 55.
- 5.
Friedman 1983, 34.
- 6.
Einstein 1979 [1949], 55.
- 7.
That is, the Minkowski “spacetime interval” or quadratic differential form c 2 dt 2 − dx 2 − dy 2 − dz 2. For our purposes it will almost always suffice to give this expression in terms of just one spatial dimension x and omit the differential symbol d; thus c 2 t 2 − x 2.
- 8.
Sean Carroll, “Lecture Notes on General Relativity,” 1997, accessed July 3, 2017, https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9712019.pdf.
- 9.
Barbour 1999, 138.
- 10.
Ricci and Levi-Civita’s original paper (1901) on the subject, entitled “Methods of the Absolute Differential Calculus and their Applications,” regarded geometry as just one possible application of the calculus. A tensor (“system”) was defined analytically in terms of the invariant transformation properties of quadratic differential forms. On this point see Norton 1992, Appendix, 302–310.
- 11.
An exception is Martínez 2009, 383–384: “In Minkowski’s interpretation, the concept of a vector summarized coordinate-analytic notions. Previously, vector theorists had advocated the priority of vectors by conceiving them as consisting fundamentally of direction and magnitude and only incidentally as expressible in terms of Cartesian coordinates.”
- 12.
Roche 1998, 5–6.
Bibliography
Barbour, Julian. 1999. The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Einstein, Albert. 1952a [1905]. On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. In Einstein et al 1952, 35–65.
———. 1961 [1916]. Relativity: The Special and General Theory. 15th ed. Translated by Robert W. Lawson. New York: Wings Books.
———. 1979 [1949]. Autobiographical Notes. Edited and translated by Paul Arthur Schilpp. La Salle: Open Court Press. First published in Schilpp 1949.
Friedman, Michael. 1983. Foundations of Spacetime Theories. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Martínez, Alberto. 2009. Kinematics: The Lost Origins of Einstein’s Relativity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Norton, John. 1992. The Physical Content of General Covariance. In Studies in the History of General Relativity, edited by Jean Eisenstadt and A.J. Kox, 281–315. Boston: Birkhauser.
Petkov, Vesselin. 2012. The not-fully appreciated Minkowski. Introduction to Minkowski 2012a, 1–37.
Roche, John. 1998. The Mathematics of Measurement. London: Athlone Press.
Sommerfeld, Arnold. 1970 [1949]. To Albert Einstein’s Seventieth Birthday. In Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, 99–105. LaSalle: Open Court.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cosgrove, J.K. (2018). Introduction: A Critique of Minkowski Spacetime. In: Relativity without Spacetime. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72631-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72631-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72630-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72631-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)