Article ID: CBB001213352

Erich Kretschmann as a Proto-Logical-Empiricist: Adventures and Misadventures of the Point-Coincidence Argument (2013)

unapi

The present paper attempts to show that a 1915 article by Erich Kretschmann must be credited not only for being the source of Einstein's point-coincidence, but also for having anticipated the main lines of the logical-empiricist interpretation of general relativity. Whereas Kretschmann was inspired by the work of Mach and Poincaré, Einstein inserted Kretschmann's point-coincidence parlance into the context of Ricci and Levi-Civita's absolute differential calculus. Kretschmann himself realized this and turned the point-coincidence argument against Einstein in his second and more famous 1918 paper. While Einstein had taken nothing from Kretschmann but the expression point-coincidences, the logical empiricists, however, instinctively dragged along with it the entire apparatus of Kretschmann's conventionalism. Disappointingly, in their interpretation of general relativity, the logical empiricists unwittingly replicated some epistemological remarks Kretschmann had written before general relativity even existed.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001213352/

Similar Citations

Article Alemañ Berenguer, Rafael Andres; (2008)
Geometría y física: de Hertz a Einstein (/isis/citation/CBB000933114/)

Book Blackmore, John T.; Itagaki, Ryoichi; Tanaka, Setsuko; (2009)
Ernst Mach's Influence Spreads (/isis/citation/CBB001023228/)

Article van Strien, Marij; (2013)
The Nineteenth Century Conflict between Mechanism and Irreversibility (/isis/citation/CBB001213355/)

Article Preston, John; (2008)
Mach and Hertz's Mechanics (/isis/citation/CBB000930751/)

Book Engler, Ole; Iven, Mathias; (2010)
Moritz Schlick: Ursprünge und Entwicklungen seines Denkens (/isis/citation/CBB001032068/)

Chapter Gereon Wolters; (2018)
Mach e la relatività: una storia infinita ambientata a HOPOSia? (/isis/citation/CBB146853924/)

Article Mawhin, Jean; (2006)
Mach, Poincaré et le mouvement absolu: des réflexions stimulantes (/isis/citation/CBB000720171/)

Book Judith R. Goodstein; (2018)
Einstein's Italian Mathematicians: Ricci, Levi-civita, and the Birth of General Relativity (/isis/citation/CBB788145002/)

Article Pesic, Peter; (2013)
Helmholtz, Riemann, and the Sirens: Sound, Color, and the “Problem of Space” (/isis/citation/CBB001320409/)

Chapter Erik C. Banks; (2018)
The Case for Mach's Neutral Monism (/isis/citation/CBB571671358/)

Chapter Marco Buzzoni; (2018)
Ernst Mach interprete di Pierre Duhem. Valore e limiti della sperimentazione mentale (/isis/citation/CBB306281511/)

Book Hanoch Gutfreund; Jürgen Renn; (2017)
The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures (/isis/citation/CBB024679698/)

Book Eisenstaedt, Jean; (2002)
Einstein et la relativité générale: Les chemins de l'espace-temps (/isis/citation/CBB000201820/)

Book Renn, Jürgen; (2007)
The Genesis of General Relativity: Sources and Interpretations (/isis/citation/CBB000931080/)

Article Sauer, Tilman; (2008)
Nova Geminorum 1912 and the Origin of the Idea of Gravitational Lensing (/isis/citation/CBB000773886/)

Chapter Luca Guidetti; (2018)
Il problema dell'analogia in Ernst Mach (/isis/citation/CBB358140394/)

Authors & Contributors
Sauer, Tilman
Renn, Jürgen
Eisenstaedt, Jean
Polak, Paweł
Guidetti, Luca
Wolters, Gereon
Concepts
Physics
Relativity, general
History of philosophy of science
Philosophy
Philosophy of science
Relativity
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Places
Europe
Cracow (Poland)
Ukraine
United States
Poland
Hungary
Institutions
Vienna Circle
Princeton University
Uniwersytet Lwowski (Lwów, Poland)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment