Why Einstein did not believe that general relativity geometrizes gravity

Lehmkuhl, Dennis

doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2013.08.002

Cited by 79 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Recently the importance of this letter has been emphasized in Einstein scholarship (Lehmkuhl, 2014). It is the first instance where Einstein explicitly claims that general relativity did not geometrize gravitation, thus suggesting a very different interpretation of the achievement of the theory than what we are used to.…”

Section: Emphasis)mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The core of Weyl's theory consists in the formal requirement of 'gauge invariance', which, however, led to equations where the choice of the Lagrangian becomes nonunique. For our purposes it is interesting that Einstein not only endorsed Reichenbach's claim that a 'geometrization' is not an essential achievement of general relativity, but also questioned the meaning of the notion of 'geometrization', and for that matter the very notion of 'geometry' (Lehmkuhl, 2014). This latter step was not taken by Reichenbach, who preferred to speak of general relativity as a 'geometrical interpretation of the gravitational field', albeit not a 'geometrization' of the latter.…”

Section: Emphasis)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As soon as Einstein understood the 'ironical' nature of Reichenbach's enterprise, he immediately agreed with him. As Dennis Lehmkuhl (2014) has recently shown, it was in his correspondence with Reichenbach that Einstein pointed out, for the first time, that general relativity had not geometrized the gravitational field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’: The Reichenbach–Einstein debate on the geometrization of the electromagnetic field

Giovanelli

2016

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper analyzes correspondence between Reichenbach and Einstein from the spring of 1926, concerning what it means to 'geometrize' a physical field. The content of a typewritten note that Reichenbach sent to Einstein on that occasion is reconstructed, showing that it was an early version of §49 of the untranslated Appendix to his Philosophie der Raum-Zeit-Lehre, on which Reichenbach was working at the time. This paper claims that the toy-geometrization of the electromagnetic field that Reichenbach presented in his note should not be regarded as merely a virtuoso mathematical exercise, but as an additional argument supporting the core philosophical message of his 1928 monograph. This paper concludes by suggesting that Reichenbach's infamous 'relativization of geometry' was only a stepping stone on the way to his main concern-the question of the 'geometrization of gravitation'.

show abstract

Section: Emphasis)mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Emphasis)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’: The Reichenbach–Einstein debate on the geometrization of the electromagnetic field

Giovanelli

2016

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…), this epistemological attitude had become untenable (for Einstein's conception of unification, cf. Lehmkuhl, 2013). Such a theory (Einstein and Grommer, 1923, 2) would account for the existence of the electrically charged constituents of matter, which ultimately enter into the very constitution of rods and clocks, which in turn serve to define the gravitational field.…”

Section: -1930s the Assessment Of Einstein's Two-stage Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that Einstein explicitly claims that this would not mean to 'geometrize' physics, but on the contrary would eliminate the arbitrary difference between 'two types of physical things' the geometrical and non-geometrical ones (cf. Lehmkuhl, 2013).…”

Section: Einstein's Epistemology In the Schilpp Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

‘But one must not legalize the mentioned sin’: Phenomenological vs. dynamical treatments of rods and clocks in Einstein׳s thought

Giovanelli

2014

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper offers a historical overview of Einstein's vacillating attitude towards 'phenomenological' and 'dynamical' treatments of rods and clocks in relativity theory. In Einstein's view, a realistic microscopic model of rods and clocks was needed to account for the very existence of measuring devices of identical construction that always measure the same unit of time and the same unit of length. It will be shown that the empirical meaningfulness of both relativity theories depends on what, following Max Born, one might call the 'principle of the physical identity of the units of measure'. In an attempt to justify the validity of such a principle, Einstein was forced by different interlocutors, in particular Hermann Weyl and Wolfgang Pauli, to deal with the genuine epistemological, rather then physical question of whether a theory should be required to describe the material devices needed for its own verification.Keywords: Albert Einstein, Relativity Theory, Rods and Clocks, Hermann Weyl, Wolfgang Pauli, Constructive Relativity, Confirmational Holism Intrinsically Brobdingnag and Lilliput are precisely the same; it needs an intruding Gulliver-an extraneous standard of length-to make them appear different. A. S. Eddington

show abstract

Introduction: Towards A Theory of Spacetime Theories

Lehmkuhl

2017

Towards a Theory of Spacetime Theories

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Why Einstein did not believe that general relativity geometrizes gravity

Cited by 79 publications

References 26 publications

‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’: The Reichenbach–Einstein debate on the geometrization of the electromagnetic field

‘…But I still can׳t get rid of a sense of artificiality’: The Reichenbach–Einstein debate on the geometrization of the electromagnetic field

‘But one must not legalize the mentioned sin’: Phenomenological vs. dynamical treatments of rods and clocks in Einstein׳s thought

Introduction: Towards A Theory of Spacetime Theories

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About