Keywords
reference frame
perspectivism
realism
robustness
How to Cite
Abstract
The special theory of relativity holds significant interest for scientific perspectivists. In this paper, I distinguish between two related meanings of “perspectival,” and argue that reference frames are perspectives, provided that perspectival means “being conditional” rather than “being partial.” Frame-dependent properties such as length, time duration, and simultaneity, are not partially measured in a reference frame, but their measurements are conditional on the choice of frame. I also discuss whether the constancy of the speed of light depends on perspectival factors such as the idealized definition of the speed of light in a perfect vacuum and the Einstein synchronization convention. Furthermore, I argue for the view that the constancy of its speed is a robust property of light according to the conditions of currently acceptable experimental setups pertaining to special relativity, and conclude that this view supports perspectivism.
References
Alai, Mario. “Resisting the Historical Objections to Realism: Is Doppelt’s a Viable Solution?” Synthese 194, no. 9 (2017): 3267–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1087-z.
Berghofer, Philipp. “Scientific Perspectivism in the Phenomenological Tradition.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 10 (2020): article number 30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00294-w.
Brown, Harvey R. Physical Relativity: Spacetime Structure from a Dynamical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Brown, Harvey R., and Oliver Pooley. “Minkowski Space-Time: A Glorious Non-Entity.” In The Ontology of Spacetime, edited by Dennis Dieks, 67–89. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1871-1774(06)01004-7.
Brown, Harvey R., and James Read. “The Dynamical Approach to Spacetime Theories.” In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, edited by Eleanor Knox and Alastair Wilson. London: Routledge, 2021.
Chakravartty, Anjan. “Perspectivism, Inconsistent Models, and Contrastive Explanation.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 41, no. 4 (2010): 405–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2010.10.007.
Chalmers, Alan. Science and Its Fabrication. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
Doppelt, Gerald D. “From Standard Scientific Realism and Structural Realism to Best Current Theory Realism.” Journal for General Philosophy of Science 42, no. 2 (2011): 295–316. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-011-9167-8.
Doppelt, Gerald D. “Best Theory Scientific Realism.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 4 (2014): 271–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-014-0090-9.
Einstein, Albert. “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.” In Hendrik A. Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Hermann Minkowski, and Hermann Weyl: The Principle of Relativity. New York: Dover Publications, 1952.
Einstein, Albert. “Time, Space, and Gravitation.” The Times, (November 28, 1919). Reprinted as “Doc. 26.” In The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, edited by Michael Janssen, Robert Schulmann, József Illy, Christoph Lehner, and Diana Kormos Buchwald, vol. 7. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Einstein, Albert. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. Translated by Robert W. Lawson. With an introduction by Roger Penrose and a commentary by Robert Geroch and a historical essay by David C. Cassidy. New York: Pi Press, 2005.
Eronen, Markus I. “Robustness and Reality.” Synthese 192, no. 12 (2015): 3961–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0801-6.
Evans, Peter. W. “Perspectival Objectivity or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Observer-Dependent Reality.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 10 (2020): article number 19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00286-w.
Fine, Kit. “Tense and Reality.” In Kit Fine: Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers, 261–320. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199278709.003.0009.
Friedman, Michael. Foundations of Space-Time Theories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Finkelstein, Jerome. “One-Way Speed of Light?” American Journal of Physics 78, no. 8 (2010): 877. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3364872.
van Fraassen, Bas C. Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278220.001.0001.
Giere, Ronald. Scientific Perspectivism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226292144.001.0001.
Giere, Ronald. “Kuhn as Perspectival Realist.” Topoi 32 (2013): 53–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-012-9142-yyy.
Giere, Ronald. “Feyerabend’s Perspectivism.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 57 (2016): 137–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.11.008.
Grünbaum, Adolf. Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1973. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2622-2.
Grünbaum, Adolf. “David Malament and the Conventionality of Simultaneity: A Reply.” Foundations of Physics 40 (2010): 1285–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-009-9328-3.
Greaves, Eduardo, Michel Rodríguezb, and J. Ruiz-Camacho. “A One-Way Speed of Light Experiment.” American Journal of Physics 77, no. 10 (2009): 894–96. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3160665.
Hacking, Ian. Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814563.
Ismael, Jenann. “How Do Causes Depend on Us? The Many Faces of Perspectivalism.” Synthese 193, no. 1 (2016): 245–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0757-6.
Janis, Allen. “Conventionality of Simultaneity.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 1997–. Article revised and published July 21, 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/spacetime-convensimul/.
Janssen, Michel. “Drawing the Line Between Kinematics and Dynamics in Special Relativity.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40, no. 1 (2009): 26–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2008.06.004.
Kosso, Peter. Appearance and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.18974.
Lipman, Martin A. “On the Fragmentalist Interpretation of Special Relativity.” Philosophical Studies 177 (2020): 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-018-1178-4.
Malament, David. “Causal Theories of Time and the Conventionality of Simultaniety.” Noûs 11, no. 3 (1977): 293–300. https://doi.org/10.2307/2214766.
Massimi, Michela. “Scientific Perspectivism and Its Foes.” Philosophica 84, no. 1 (2012): 25–52.
Massimi, Michela. “Four Kinds of Perspectival Truth.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 96, no. 2 (2018): 342–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12300.
Massimi, Michela. “Perspectivism.” In The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism, edited by Juha Saatsi, 164–75. New York: Routledge, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203712498-14.
Massimi, Michela. “Realism, Perspectivism, and Disagreement in Science.” Synthese (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02500-6.
Massimi, Michela, and Casey D. McCoy, eds. Understanding Perspectivism: Scientific Challenges and Methodological Prospects. New York: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315145198.
Maudlin, Tim. “Relativity and Space-Time Geometry.” In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, edited by Eleanor Knox and Alastair Wilson. London: Routledge, 2021.
Radder, Hans. In and About the World: Philosophical Studies of Science and Technology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996. Reichenbach, Hans. The Philosophy of Space & Time. New York: Dover Publications, 1958.
Reicher, Maria. “Nonexistent Objects.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 1997–. Article revised and published March 19, 2019. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/nonexistent-objects/.
Ryckman, Thomas. The Reign of Relativity: Philosophy of Physics 1915–1925. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195177177.001.0001.
Rynasiewicz, Robert. “Definition, Convention, and Simultaneity: Malament’s Result and its Alleged Refutation by Sarkar and Stachel.” Philosophy of Science 68, no. 3 (2001): 345–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/392920.
Rynasiewicz, Robert. “Simultaneity, Convention, and Gauge Freedom.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 43, no. 2 (2012): 90–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2012.01.004.
Sarkar, Sahotra, and John Stachel. “Did Malament Prove the Non-Conventionality of Simultaneity in the Special Theory of Relativity?” Philosophy of Science 66, no. 2 (1999): 208–20. https://doi.org/10.1086/392684.
Salmon, Wesley C. “The Philosophical Significance of the One-Way Speed of Light.” Noûs 11, no. 3 (1977): 253–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2214765.
Slavov, Matias. “Eternalism and Perspectival Realism about the ‘Now.’” Foundations of Physics 50 (2020): 1398–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-020-00385-x.
Teller, Paul. “Modeling, Truth, and Philosophy.” Metaphilosophy 43, no. 3 (2012): 257–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9973.2012.01745.x.
Teller, Paul. “What Is Perspectivism, and Does It Count as Realism?” In Understanding Perspectivism: Scientific Challenges and Methodological Prospects, edited by Michela Massimi and Casey D. McCoy, 49–64. New York: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315145198-4.
Wimsatt, William C. Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1pncnrh.
Since 2019, TEORIE VĚDY / THEORY OF SCIENCE journal provides open access to its content under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Authors who publish in this journal agree that:
- Authors retain copyright and publication rights without restrictions and guarantee the journal the right of first publishing. All published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows others to share this work under condition that its author and first publishing in this journal was acknowledged.
- Authors may enter into other agreements for non-exclusive dissemination of work in the version in which it was published in the journal (for example, publishing it in a book), but they have to acknowledge its first publication in this journal.
- Authors are allowed and encouraged to make their work available online (for example, on their personal websites, social media accounts, and institutional repositories) as such a practice may lead to productive exchanges of views as well as earlier and higher citations of published work.
There are no author fees, no article processing charges, or submission charges.
The journal allows readers to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles and allows readers to use them for any other lawful purpose.
A summary of the open access policy is also available in the Sherpa Romeo database.