Concepts of simultaneity: from antiquity to Einstein and beyond

Max Jammer9780801884221, 0-8018-8422-5

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 Poincar?, 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.

---

Table of contents :
Contents……Page 8
Preface……Page 10
Introduction……Page 14
1 Terminological Preliminaries……Page 21
2 The Concept of Simultaneity in Antiquity……Page 29
3 Medieval Conceptions of Simultaneity……Page 60
4 The Concept of Simultaneity in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries……Page 72
5 The Concept of Simultaneity in Classical Physics……Page 81
6 The Transition to the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity……Page 108
7 Simultaneity in the Special Theory of Relativity……Page 119
8 The Reception of the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity……Page 161
9 The Conventionality Thesis……Page 184
10 The Promulgation of the Conventionality Thesis……Page 205
11 Symmetry and Transitivity of Simultaneity……Page 214
12 Arguments against the Conventionality Thesis……Page 233
13 Clock Transport Synchrony……Page 253
14 Recent Debates on the Conventionality of Simultaneity……Page 264
15 Simultaneity in General Relativity and in Quantum Mechanics……Page 284
Epilogue……Page 308
B……Page 314
E……Page 315
H……Page 316
L……Page 317
P……Page 318
S……Page 319
W……Page 320
Z……Page 321