Abstract
It is not easy to state special relativity without begging various questions of interpretation. The following is my attempt to do so. First I say a statement is 'physically necessary' if it is entailed by the correct statements of laws of nature together with any metaphysically necessary truths. Next I assume that there are many ways of assigning coordinates t, x, y, z to events. Then by a 'relative transformation' of coordinates, I mean one that preserves the quasi-metric:- (t₁–t₂)² + (x₁–x₂)² + (y₁– y₂)² + (z₁– z₂)².Then special relativity tells us that if S is any physically necessary statement then so is S´ the result of systematically replacing t, x, y, z by t´, x´, y´ and z´.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Zeit und Geschichte: Beiträge des 28. Internationalen Wittgenstein Symposiums [Time and History: Proceedings of the 28th International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium] |
| Editors | Friedrich Stadler, Michael Stöltzner |
| Place of Publication | Frankfurt, Germany |
| Publisher | Ontos Verlag |
| Pages | 73-75 |
| ISBN (Print) | 3938793171, 9783938793176 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
| Event | Wittgenstein Symposium 2005: 28th International Wittgenstein Symposium - Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria Duration: 7 Aug 2005 → 13 Aug 2005 |
Conference
| Conference | Wittgenstein Symposium 2005: 28th International Wittgenstein Symposium |
|---|---|
| City | Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria |
| Period | 7/08/05 → 13/08/05 |
Keywords
- Philosophy
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Who's Afraid of Special Relativity?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Cite this
- APA
- Author
- BIBTEX
- Harvard
- Standard
- RIS
- Vancouver