Cart
Free Shipping in the UK
Proud to be B-Corp

Reflections on Spacetime Ulrich Majer

Reflections on Spacetime By Ulrich Majer

Reflections on Spacetime by Ulrich Majer


£52.99
Condition - New
Only 2 left

Summary

Focusing on unsolved questions, such as the possibility of time machines, referential indeterminacy, the hole problem, and the conventional vs empirical character of spacetime, this book presents a collection of research papers, written by those who had participated in the Zentrum fur interdisziplinare Forschung during the academic year 1992/93.

Reflections on Spacetime Summary

Reflections on Spacetime: Foundations, Philosophy, History by Ulrich Majer

REFLECTIONS ON SPACETIME - FOUNDATIONS, PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY During the academic year 1992/93, an interdisciplinary research group constituted itself at the Zentrum fUr interdisziplinare Forschung (ZiF) in Bielefeld, Germany, under the title 'Semantical Aspects of Spacetime Theories', in which philosophers and physicists worked on topics in the interpretation and history of relativity theory. The present issue consists of contributions resulting from material presented and discussed in the group during the course of that year. The scope of the papers ranges from rather specialised issues arising from general relativity such as the problem of referential indeterminacy, to foundational questions regarding spacetime in the work of Carnap, Weyl and Hilbert. It is well known that the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) admits spacetime models which are 'exotic' in the sense that observers could travel into their own past. This poses a number of problems for the physical interpretation of GTR which are also relevant in the philosophy of spacetime. It is not enough to exclude these exotic models simply by stating that we live in a non-exotic universe, because it might be possible to "operate time machines" by actively changing the topology of the future part of spacetime. In his contribution, Earman first reviews the attempts of physicists to prove "chronology protection theorems" (CPTs) which exclude the operation of time machines under reasonable assumptions.

Table of Contents

Outlawing Time Machines: Chronology Protection Theorems.- A New Semantics for the Epistemology of Geometry. I: Modeling Spacetime Structure.- A New Semantics for the Epistemology of Geometry. II: Epistemological Completeness of NewtonGalilei and EinsteinMaxwell Theory.- A Minimal Interpretation of General Relativistic Spacetime Geometry.- Science without Reference?.- Did Einstein Stumble? The Debate over General Covariance.- Carnap and Weyl on the Foundations of Geometry and Relativity Theory.- Geometry, Intuition and Experience: From Kant to Husserl.

Additional information

NPB9780792337126
9780792337126
0792337123
Reflections on Spacetime: Foundations, Philosophy, History by Ulrich Majer
New
Hardback
Springer
1995-08-31
165
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Reflections on Spacetime