- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Max Jammer's Concepts of Simultaneity presents a comprehensive, accessible account of the historical development of an important and controversial concept—which played a critical role in initiating modern theoretical physics—from the days of Egyptian hieroglyphs through to Einstein's work in 1905, and beyond. Beginning with the use of the concept of simultaneity in ancient Egypt and in the Bible, the study discusses its role in Greek and medieval philosophy as well as its significance in Newtonian physics and in the ideas of Leibniz, Kant, and other classical philosophers. The central theme of Jammer's presentation is a critical analysis of the use of this concept by philosophers of science, like Poincaré, and its significant role in inaugurating modern theoretical physics in Einstein's special theory of relativity. Particular attention is paid to the philosophical problem of whether the notion of distant simultaneity presents a factual reality or only a hypothetical convention. The study concludes with an analysis of simultaneity's importance in general relativity and quantum mechanics.
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Terminological Preliminaries
- 2 The Concept of Simultaneity in Antiquity
- 3 Medieval Conceptions of Simultaneity
- 4 The Concept of Simultaneity in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
- 5 The Concept of Simultaneity in Classical Physics
- 6 The Transition to the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity
- 7 Simultaneity in the Special Theory of Relativity
- 8 The Reception of the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity
- 9 The Conventionality Thesis
- 10 The Promulgation of the Conventionality Thesis
- 11 Symmetry and Transitivity of Simultaneity
- 12 Arguments against the Conventionality Thesis
- 13 Clock Transport Synchrony
- 14 Recent Debates on the Conventionality of Simultaneity
- 15 Simultaneity in General Relativity and in Quantum Mechanics
- Epilogue
- Index
- Footnotes