Journal ArticleDOI
Reconsidering a scientific revolution: The case of Einstein versus Lorentz
TLDR
In particular, the relativistic interpretation of Lorentz invariance is preferable to the original interpretation as discussed by the authors, which assumes that the laws governing the matter interacting with the electromagnetic fields in the ether are invariant as well.Abstract:
The relationship between Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity and Hendrik A. Lorentz's ether theory is best understood in terms of competing interpretations of Lorentz invariance. In the 1890s, Lorentz proved and exploited the Lorentz invariance of Maxwell's equations, the laws governing electromagnetic fields in the ether, with what he called the theorem of corresponding states. To account for the negative results of attempts to detect the earth's motion through the ether, Lorentz, in effect, had to assume that the laws governing the matter interacting with the fields are Lorentz invariant as well. This additional assumption can be seen as a generalization of the well-known contraction hypothesis. In Lorentz's theory, it remained an unexplained coincidence that both the laws governing fields and the laws governing matter should be Lorentz invariant. In special relativity, by contrast, the Lorentz invariance of all physical laws directly reflects the Minkowski space-time structure posited by the theory. One can use this observation to produce a common-cause argument to show that the relativistic interpretation of Lorentz invariance is preferable to Lorentz's interpretation.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave. Pp. viii, 282. £3·50, paperback £1. 1970. (Cambridge University Press.)
Book ChapterDOI
Minkowski space-time: A glorious non-entity
Harvey R. Brown,Oliver Pooley +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that Minkowski space-time cannot serve as the deep structure within a "constructive" version of the special theory of relativity, contrary to widespread opinion in the philosophical community.
Journal ArticleDOI
Presentism and relativity
Yuri Balashov,Michel Janssen +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue against William Craig's recent attempt to reconcile presentism (roughly, the view that only the present is real) with relativity theory, arguing that his reconstruction of Lorentz's theory and its historical development is fatally flawed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Drawing the line between kinematics and dynamics in special relativity
TL;DR: In this article, the authors defend the traditional view that special relativity is preferable to those parts of Lorentz's classical ether theory it replaced because it revealed various phenomena that were given a dynamical explanation to be purely kinematical.
References
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Book
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
TL;DR: The Open Society and Its Enemies as discussed by the authors is regarded as one of Popper's most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand to be read to this day, as well as many of the ideas in the book.
Book ChapterDOI
Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes
TL;DR: For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge, proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses as discussed by the authors. But the notion of proven knowledge was questioned by the sceptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics.
Journal ArticleDOI
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave. Pp. viii, 282. £3·50, paperback £1. 1970. (Cambridge University Press.)
Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper
TL;DR: In this article, anwendung auf bewegte Korper zu Asymmetrien fuhrt, welche den Phanomenen nicht anzuhaften scheinen, is bekannt.