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Conventionality in the Axiomatic Foundations of the Special Theory of Relativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Bas C. van Fraassen
Bas C. van Fraassen*
Affiliation:
Yale University and Indiana University
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Abstract

In this paper we examine Ellis and Bowman's argument, that simultaneity in inertial frames of reference is not conventional, from the axiomatic point of view. In Part I we examine the role of conventions in an axiomatic physical theory, and in Part II the relation of simultaneity in Reichenbach's axiomatization of the space-time theory of special relativity.

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. 64 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

[1] Ellis, B. and Bowman, P., “Conventionality in distant simultaneity,” Philosophy of Science, vol. 34, 1967, pp. 116–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Poincaré, H. The Value of Science, Dover, New York, 1958.Google Scholar
[3] Reichenbach, H., The Philosophy of Space and Time, Dover, New York, 1958.Google Scholar
[4] van Fraassen, B., An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space, Random House, New York, forthcoming (1969).Google Scholar