(I think it was general relativity, not special relativity.)
Special relativity was formalised around ten years earlier than general relativity (around 1905), which better fits in with my mental timeline of the fin de siecle.
I can see where whoever said that is coming from[...]
Whoever asserted that Einstein’s theory had resolved Hume’s insight? or whoever said that, at the time, the educated generally considered Einstein’s theory to have resolved Hume’s insight? If the former, I think it was more a widespread idea that the majority of the educated shared, rather than one person’s assertion.
Regardless of to whom you were referring, I look forward to your elaboration!
Special relativity was formalised around ten years earlier than general relativity (around 1905), which better fits in with my mental timeline of the fin de siecle.
I can’t see what special relativity would have to do with Hume. It just extended the principle of relativity, which was already introduced by Galileo, to the propagation of light at a finite speed, though with all kinds of counter-intuitive results such as the relativity of simultaneity. By itself, it still doesn’t predict (say) gravitation. (It does predict conservation of energy, momentum and angular momentum if you assume space-time is homogeneous and isotropic and use Noether’s theorem, but so does Galilean relativity for that matter.)
On the other hand, general relativity, from a small number of very simple assumptions, predicts quite a lot of things (pretty much any non-quantum phenomenon which had observed back then except electromagnetism). Indeed Einstein said he was completely certain his theory would prove to be true before it was even tested. EDIT: you actually need more data than I remembered to get to GR: see http://lesswrong.com/lw/jo/einsteins_arrogance/757x
(Wow, now that I’m trying to explain that, I realize that the difference between SR and GR in these respects are nowhere near as important as I was thinking.)
Anyway, there’s still no logical reason why those very simple assumptions have to be true; you still need experience to tell you they are.
Thank you for the review! It makes a lot in the two wikipedia articles on special and general relativity easier to digest.
Can you give me some pointers? I can’t recall ever hearing about that before.
I intend on thoroughly going over my notes this weekend so I can separate historical fact from interpretation, which are currently grouped together in my memory. I’ll be able to do your response justice then.
I’m not an expert in philosophy, but if we are talking physics, relativity, special or general, did not do anything of the sort you claim: “Einstein’s theory of special relativity it was at the time considered finally possible to accurately and precisely predict the movements of bodies in our universe.” If anything, the Newtonian mechanics had a better claim at determinism, at least until 19th century, when it became clear than electromagnetism comes with a host of paradoxes, not cleared up until both SR and QM were developed. Of course, this immediately caused more trouble than it solved, and I recall no serious physicist who claimed that it was ” finally possible to accurately and precisely predict the movements of bodies”, given that QM is inherently non-deterministic, SR showing that Newtonian gravity is incomplete. and GR was not shown to be well-posed until much later.
Thank you for your input. I also do not know of any serious physicist who asserted that causality had been finally and definitively solved by SR; from what I was taught, it was as I said more a widespread idea that the majority of the educated shared, rather than one person’s assertion.
Indeed, Hume’s insight is more of a philosophical problem than a mathematical one. Hume showed that empiricism alone could never determine causality. Einstein’s STR showed that causality can be determined empirically when aided by maths, a tool of the empiricist. It can be argued that STR does not definitively prove causality itself (perhaps very rightly so—again, I am not aware), however the salient point is that STR gave rise to the conception that Hume’s insight had finally been resolved. To be clear, in order to resolve Hume’s insight one only needed to demonstrate that through empiricism it is possible to establish causality.
Special relativity was formalised around ten years earlier than general relativity (around 1905), which better fits in with my mental timeline of the fin de siecle.
Whoever asserted that Einstein’s theory had resolved Hume’s insight? or whoever said that, at the time, the educated generally considered Einstein’s theory to have resolved Hume’s insight? If the former, I think it was more a widespread idea that the majority of the educated shared, rather than one person’s assertion.
Regardless of to whom you were referring, I look forward to your elaboration!
I can’t see what special relativity would have to do with Hume. It just extended the principle of relativity, which was already introduced by Galileo, to the propagation of light at a finite speed, though with all kinds of counter-intuitive results such as the relativity of simultaneity. By itself, it still doesn’t predict (say) gravitation. (It does predict conservation of energy, momentum and angular momentum if you assume space-time is homogeneous and isotropic and use Noether’s theorem, but so does Galilean relativity for that matter.)
On the other hand, general relativity, from a small number of very simple assumptions, predicts quite a lot of things (pretty much any non-quantum phenomenon which had observed back then except electromagnetism). Indeed Einstein said he was completely certain his theory would prove to be true before it was even tested. EDIT: you actually need more data than I remembered to get to GR: see http://lesswrong.com/lw/jo/einsteins_arrogance/757x
(Wow, now that I’m trying to explain that, I realize that the difference between SR and GR in these respects are nowhere near as important as I was thinking.)
Anyway, there’s still no logical reason why those very simple assumptions have to be true; you still need experience to tell you they are.
The comments to http://lesswrong.com/lw/jo/einsteins_arrogance/ go into more detail about this.
Can you give me some pointers? I can’t recall ever hearing about that before.
Thank you for the review! It makes a lot in the two wikipedia articles on special and general relativity easier to digest.
I intend on thoroughly going over my notes this weekend so I can separate historical fact from interpretation, which are currently grouped together in my memory. I’ll be able to do your response justice then.
I’m not an expert in philosophy, but if we are talking physics, relativity, special or general, did not do anything of the sort you claim: “Einstein’s theory of special relativity it was at the time considered finally possible to accurately and precisely predict the movements of bodies in our universe.” If anything, the Newtonian mechanics had a better claim at determinism, at least until 19th century, when it became clear than electromagnetism comes with a host of paradoxes, not cleared up until both SR and QM were developed. Of course, this immediately caused more trouble than it solved, and I recall no serious physicist who claimed that it was ” finally possible to accurately and precisely predict the movements of bodies”, given that QM is inherently non-deterministic, SR showing that Newtonian gravity is incomplete. and GR was not shown to be well-posed until much later.
Thank you for your input. I also do not know of any serious physicist who asserted that causality had been finally and definitively solved by SR; from what I was taught, it was as I said more a widespread idea that the majority of the educated shared, rather than one person’s assertion.
Indeed, Hume’s insight is more of a philosophical problem than a mathematical one. Hume showed that empiricism alone could never determine causality. Einstein’s STR showed that causality can be determined empirically when aided by maths, a tool of the empiricist. It can be argued that STR does not definitively prove causality itself (perhaps very rightly so—again, I am not aware), however the salient point is that STR gave rise to the conception that Hume’s insight had finally been resolved. To be clear, in order to resolve Hume’s insight one only needed to demonstrate that through empiricism it is possible to establish causality.