Lost Opportunity: how Einstein 1916 ingored Minkowski 1908

Abstract

Einstein’s first survey of General Relativity is deeply flawed in its informal introductory section, Part A. He presents the salient feature of the new theory as the mere lifting of coordinate restrictions on Special Relativity rather than its being a spacetime theory of gravity. Minkowski developed a different conception of Special Relativity, independent of light and signalling, with spacetime as its immediate and principal consequence. If Einstein had begun general relativity from that basis he would have avoided the many errors into which Part A fell.

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Graham Nerlich
University of Adelaide

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References found in this work

What price spacetime substantivalism? The hole story.John Earman & John Norton - 1987 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (4):515-525.
On the electrodynamics of moving bodies.Albert Einstein - 1920 - In The Principle of Relativity. [Calcutta]: Dover Publications. pp. 35-65.
The Meaning of Relativity.Albert Einstein - 1922 - London,: Routledge. Edited by Edwin P. Adams.

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