This volume is dedicated to the centennial anniversary of Minkowski's discovery of spacetime. It contains selected papers by physicists and philosophers on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime. The first six papers, comprising Part I of the book, provide examples of the impact of Minkowski's spacetime representation of special relativity on the twentieth century physics. Part II also contains six papers which deal with implications of Minkowski's ideas for the philosophy of space and time. The last part is represented by two papers which explore the influence of Minkowski's ideas beyond the philosophy of space and time.
Author(s): Ronny Desmet (auth.), Vesselin Petkov (eds.)
Series: Fundamental Theories of Physics 167
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 314
Tags: Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory
Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Minkowskian Background of Whitehead’s Theory of Gravitation....Pages 3-24
The Experimental Verdict on Spacetime from Gravity Probe B....Pages 25-59
Rigidity and the Ruler Hypothesis....Pages 61-106
Minkowski Space and Quantum Mechanics....Pages 107-127
Relativity and Quantum Field Theory....Pages 129-146
Ether, the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics....Pages 147-155
Front Matter....Pages 157-157
Minkowski’s Proper Time and the Status of the Clock Hypothesis....Pages 159-179
Why Spacetime Is Not a Hidden Cause: A Realist Story....Pages 181-191
Structural Explanations in Minkowski Spacetime: Which Account of Models?....Pages 193-207
Relativity of Simultaneity and Eternalism: In Defense of the Block Universe....Pages 209-237
Minkowski Space-Time and Thermodynamics....Pages 239-256
No Presentism in Quantum Gravity....Pages 257-278
Front Matter....Pages 279-279
Space-Time, Phenomenology, and the Picture Theory of Language....Pages 281-290
The Fate of Mathematical Place: Objectivity and the Theory of Lived-Space from Husserl to Casey....Pages 291-311
Back Matter....Pages 313-314
