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The Conventionality of Simultaneity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Wesley C. Salmon
Wesley C. Salmon*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Abstract

After describing a new method of synchronizing spatially separated clocks by means of clock transport, this paper discusses the philosophical import of the existence of such methods, including those of Ellis and Bowman and of Bridgman, with special reference to the Ellis-Bowman claim that “the thesis of the coventionality of distant simultaneity ... is thus either trivialized or refuted.” I argue that the physical facts do not support this philosophical conclusion, and that a substantial part of their argument against Reichenbach, in particular, is misdirected. Finally, I suggest that Ellis and Bowman employ seriously unclear notions of triviality and “good physical reasons” that tend to obscure rather than clarify the basic philosophical issues. An objective criterion of nontriviality of conventions is advanced.

Type
A Panel Discussion of Simultaneity By Slow Clock Transport in The Special and General Theories of Relativity
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 1969 , pp. 44 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

[1] Bridgman, P. W., A Sophisticate's Primer of Relativity, Wesleyan University Press, Middle-town, 1962.Google Scholar
[2] Einstein, Albert, “On the Electrodydamics of Moving Bodies,” in Einstein et al., The Principle of Relativity, Dover Publications, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
[3] Ellis, Brian, and Bowman, Peter, “Conventionality in Distant Simultaneity,” Philosophy of Science, vol. 34, No. 2, 1967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Grünbaum, Adolf, “The Clock Paradox in the Special Theory of Relativity,” Philosophy of Science, vol. 21, 1954.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Reichenbach, Hans, The Philosophy of Space and Time, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1958.Google Scholar