Why Einstein did not believe that general relativity geometrizes gravity

Abstract

I argue that, contrary to folklore, Einstein never really cared for geometrizing the gravitational or the electromagnetic field; indeed, he thought that the very statement that General Relativity geometrizes gravity "is not saying anything at all". Instead, I shall show that Einstein saw the "unification" of inertia and gravity as one of the major achievements of General Relativity. Interestingly, Einstein did not locate this unification in the field equations but in his interpretation of the geodesic equation, the law of motion of test particles.

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Dennis Lehmkuhl
Universität Bonn

References found in this work

Autobiographical Notes.Max Black, Albert Einstein & Paul Arthur Schilpp - 1949 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 15 (2):157.
Geometrie und Erfahrung: verweiterte Fassung des Festvortrages.Albert Einstein - 1921 - Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Kommission Bei W. De Gruyter.
Einstein's struggle for a Machian gravitation theory.Carl Hoefer - 1994 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (3):287-335.

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