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Epistemology
of the Principle of Relativity
lecture course
Wed 14:00-15:30
Room 221
(Múzeum krt. 4./i)
(The
lectures will be given in English.
The exam can be taken in English
or Hungarian.)
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81779668670?pwd=TTEzakFHNEVWQlQxOFJiL1dWUVZidz09
The course
is a case study on one of the most
fundamental and influential
principles of modern physics, the
Principle of Relativity. After a
short review on the history of the
principle, from the famous passage
in Galileo's Dialogue
through Einstein's 1905 paper to
the contemporary texts, we will
consider a typical textbook
formulation of the principle: “The
laws of physics have the same form
in all inertial frames of
reference.” The core part of the
lecture course will be a
word-by-word analysis of this
single sentence. It will be seen
that the actual statement is not
at all simple and obvious. We will
encounter several difficulties to
be resolved, and our final
analysis will conclude that some
of the problems remain unanswered,
and the universal validity of the
principle, at least in a few
peculiar situations, is
questionable. Finally, we will
deal with the general
epistemological status of the
Relativity Principle and its
friends (like the Cosmological
Principle). It will be seen that
there is a tension between these
principles and the operational
foundations of physical concepts.
In fact, it will be argued, there
is no objective knowledge of the
world without the perspectival
elements of our experiences.
LyX Document
Grading criteria, specific
requirements
Oral exam from the material of the
lectures. Video records and the
slides of the lectures will be
available.
Suggested readings
- H. Reichenbach: The Theory
of Relativity and A
Priori Knowledge,
University of California Press,
Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965.
- L. E. Szabó: On the meaning of
Lorentz covariance, Foundations
of
Physics Letters 17
(2004) pp. 479 - 496
[preprint: PDF]
- H.
Reichenbach: The
philosophy
of space and time,
Dover Publications, New York,
1958.
- M. Friedman: Foundations
of Space-Time Theories --
Relativistic Physics and
Philosophy of Science,
Princeton University Press,
Princeton, 1983.
- J. S. Bell: How to teach
special relativity, in Speakable
and unspeakable in quantum
mechanics, Cambridge
University Press, 1987.
- A. Einstein, Relativity:
The Special and General Theory
- L. E. Szabó: Lorentzian
theories vs. Einsteinian special
relativity -- a
logico-empiricist
reconstruction, in A. Maté, M.
Rédei and F. Stadler (eds.), Vienna
Circle and Hungary --
Veröffentlichungen des
Instituts Wiener Kreis,
Springer 2011. [PDF]
- L. E. Szabó: Does special
relativity theory tell us
anything new about space and
time? [PDF]
(Prolog)
- M.
Gömöri and L.E. Szabó:
Formal statement of the
special principle of
relativity (2015), Synthese, 192 (2015),
pp. 2053–2076, DOI:
10.1007/s11229-013-0374-1
- Earman, J. (2004): Laws,
Symmetry, and Symmetry Breaking:
Invariance, Conservation
Principles, and Objectivity,
Philosophy of Science 71, 1227.
- Norton, J. D. (2013): Special
Theory of Relativity: The
Principles,
http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/
chapters/Special_relativity_principles
2021-11-016
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Videos and
slides
TTK-s és IK-s
BSc hallgatók!
Filozófia
minor
TTK-s és IK-s
BSc hallgatók!
Logika és
tudományelmélet MA
szak
benne
A fizika
filozófiája
vagy
A matematika
filozófiája
alprogrammal!
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(in
English)
The
program
focuses
on logic and
its
applications
in the
philosophy of
science,
particularly
in the
foundations of
mathematics,
physics,
linguistics
and the social
sciences.
Beyond a few
core courses
and a joint
four-semester
seminar series
aimed at
providing a
common
background to
all students,
we offer the
following four
modules:
- Logic
and the
Philosophy of
Mathematics
-
Philosophy of
Physics
- Logic
in Linguistics
- Models
in the Social
Sciences
Students
have to select
one of these
modules based
on their
personal field
of interest.
>>>
Further
details
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