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The Genesis of General Relativity

Sources and Interpretations

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Editors:
  1. Michel Janssen

    1. University of Minnesota, USA

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  2. John D. Norton

    1. University of Pittsburgh, USA

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  3. Jürgen Renn

    1. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany

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  4. Tilman Sauer

    1. Einstein Papers Project, Caltech, USA

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  5. John Stachel

    1. Boston University, USA

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  • The most in-depth study of the major scientific revolution of the 20th century
  • Einstein’s 1912 Zurich notebook for the first time published in facsimile and transcript and commented on by today’s major historians of science
  • Additional sources on the genesis of General Relativity to appear in English translation for the first time
  • Contributions that provide access for non-specialists
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 250)

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Table of contents (50 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-6
    Download chapter PDF

    1. Introduction to Volumes 1 and 2: The Zurich Notebook and the Genesis of General Relativity

      • Michel Janssen, John D. Norton, Jürgen Renn, Tilman Sauer, John Stachel
      Pages 7-20

    2. Classical Physics In Disarray

      • Jürgen Renn
      Pages 21-80

    3. The First Two Acts

      • John Stachel
      Pages 81-111

    4. Pathways out of Classical Physics

      • Jürgen Renn, Tilman Sauer
      Pages 113-312

    5. Einstein's Zurich Notebook

      Pages 313-487

    6. A Commentary on the Notes on Gravity in the Zurich Notebook

      • Michel Janssen, Jürgen Renn, Tilman Sauer, John D. Norton, John Stachel
      Pages 489-714

    7. What was Einstein's “Fateful Prejudice”?

      • John D. Norton
      Pages 715-783

    8. What did Einstein know and when did He know it? A Besso Memo Dated August 1913

      • Michel Janssen
      Pages 787-837

    9. Untying the Knot: how Einstein Found his way Back to Field Equations Discarded in the Zurich Notebook

      • Michel Janssen, Jürgen Renn
      Pages 839-925

  3. The Gravitational Force between Mechanics and Electrodynamics

    1. Gravitation in the Twilight of Classical Physics: An Introduction

      • Jürgen Renn, Matthias Schemmel
      Pages 926-944

    2. The Third Way to General Relativity: Einstein and Mach in Context

      • Jürgen Renn
      Pages 945-1000

    3. Gravitation

      • Jonathan Zenneck
      Pages 1001-1037

    4. Considerations on Gravitation

      • Hendrik A. Lorentz
      Pages 1038-1052

    5. Absolute or Relative Motion?

      • Benedict, Immanuel Friedlaender
      Pages 1053-1071

    6. On Absolute and Relative Motion

      • FÄppl August
      Pages 1072-1080

  4. An Astronomical Road to a New Theory of Gravitation

    1. The Continuity Between Classical and Relativistic Cosmology in the Work of Karl Schwarzschild

      • Matthias Schemmel
      Pages 1081-1108

    2. Things at Rest in the Universe

      • Karl Schwarzschild
      Pages 1109-1117

  5. A New Law of Gravitation Enforced by Special Relativity

    1. Breaking in the 4-Vectors: The Four-Dimensional Movement in Gravitation, 1905–1910

      • Scott Walter
      Pages 1118-1178

    2. On The Dynamics of the Electron (Excerpts)

      • Henri Poincaré
      Pages 1179-1198
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Keywords

About this book

The transition from classical to modern physics in the ?rst half of the twentieth c- tury by quantum and relativity theories affected some of the most fundamental notions of physical thinking, such as matter, radiation, space, and time. This tran- tion thus represents a challenge for any attempt to understand the structures of a s- enti?c revolution. The present four-volume work aims at a comprehensive account of the way in which the work of Albert Einstein and his contemporaries changed our understanding of space, time, and gravitation. The conceptual framework of classical nineteenth-century physics had to be fundamentally restructured and reinterpreted in order to arrive at a theory of gravitation compatible with the new notions of space and time established in 1905 by Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Whereas the classical theory of gravitation postulated an instantaneous action at a distance, Einstein’s new relativistic kinematics rather suggested an analogy between the gravitational ?eld and the electromagnetic ?eld, propagating with a ?nite speed. It is therefore not surprising that Einstein was not alone in addressing the problem of formulating a theory of gravitation that complies with the kinematics of relativity t- ory. The analysis of these alternative approaches, as well as of earlier alternative approaches to gravitation within classical physics, turns out to be crucial for identi- ing the necessities and contingencies in the actual historical development.

Reviews

From the reviews:

These volumes prove that to Wittgenstein’s saying that "Genius is what makes us forget skill" ought to be added the statement "when viewing the finished product." Genius is also the ability to master the available resources and techniques and to synthesize them in a manner that overwhelms. The volumes are the product of a remarkable cooperative effort on the part of five of the most distinguished Einstein scholars. They deciphered and analyzed the extended research notes that Einstein made from 1912 to 1915 in his struggle to arrive at the final formulation of his theory of general relativity. In doing so they have given us deep new insights on Einstein’s creativity and on creativity in general, on context, on the role of past resources and expertise, and on the function of analogies. Their researches, observations and commentary have also made us think anew of the concept of a scientific revolution. Their splendid work is surely one of the most important and seminal scholarly accomplishments of recent times.

S.S. Schweber, Brandeis University, USA

"The publication of The Genesis of General Relativity marks the outcome of 10 years of research into the origins of Einstein’s General Relativity Theory … . It provides a comprehensive study and in-depth analysis of how the work of Albert Einstein and his contemporaries changes our understanding of space, time and gravitation. … At the center of this reconstruction, is a commentary of Einstein’s unpublished research notes, so-called ‘Zurich Notebook’, presented in their entirety for the first time." (Renn Jürgen, www.physorg.com, February, 2007)

These volumes are the result of over two decades of effort, by most of the
leading scholars in the field, to understand the process that culminated in
1915 and 1916 in Einstein’s publication of the general theory of relativity.
In addition to relativity physicists theproject involved, both individually
and more frequently collaboratively, historians and philosophers of science.
The central objective was, through this richly documented case study, to
identify universal features of the epistemological transformation that the
authors have called a “Copernican process”: How is it that heuristic guides
can render conceptual changes that invalidate their use? This dynamical
transmutation is firmly rooted in received societal and disciplinary scientific
knowledge. In the particular case under study here, most relativists will
probably have little trouble rejecting the mistaken popular notion that Einstein
was an isolated genius, creating his new world through shear inspired
imagination... Donald Salisbury, July 2008

To read more of this review  - paste this link into your browser.

http://arxiv1.library.cornell.edu/abs/0807.3706v1

 

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Minnesota, USA

    Michel Janssen

  • University of Pittsburgh, USA

    John D. Norton

  • Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany

    Jürgen Renn

  • Einstein Papers Project, Caltech, USA

    Tilman Sauer

  • Boston University, USA

    John Stachel

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