Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T09:20:50.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inertia, Gravitation and Metaphysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Lawrence Sklar
Lawrence Sklar*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Several variant “Newtonian” theories of inertia and gravitation are described, and their scientific usefulness discussed. An examination of these theories is used to throw light on traditional epistemological and metaphysical questions about space and time. Finally these results are examined in the light of the changes induced by the transition from “Newtonian” to general relativistic spacetime.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , March 1976 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I am grateful for the support of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation during the period in which this paper was written. I wish also to acknowledge the helpful comments on a earlier version of the paper provided by the referee of this journal.

References

Bondi, H. Cosmology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Deser, S. “Self-Interaction and Gauge Invariance.” General Relativity and Gravitation 1 (1970): 9–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, J. and Friedman, J. “The Meaning and Status of Newton's Law of Inertia.” Philosophy of Science 40 (1973): 329–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Havas, P. “Four-Dimensional Formulations of Newtonian Mechanics and Their Relation to the Special and the General Theory of Relativity.” Reviews of Modern Physics 36 (1964): 938–965.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckmann, O. Theorien der Kosmologie: Berichtiger Nachdruck. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1968.Google Scholar
Heckmann, O. and Schücking, E. “Bemerkungen zur Newtonschen Kosmologie. I.” Zeitschrift für Astrophysik 38 (1955): 95–109.Google Scholar
Heckmann, O. and Schücking, E. “Bemerkung zur Newtonschen Kosmologie. II.” Zeitschrift für Astrophysik 40 (1956): 81–92.Google Scholar
Heckmann, O. and Schücking, E. “Newtonsche und Einsteinsche Kosmologie.” In Encyclopedia of Physics, Vol. LIII. Edited by Flügge, S. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1959.Google Scholar
Layzer, D. “On the Significance of Newtonian Cosmology.” The Astronomical Journal 59 (1954): 268–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrea, W. “On Newtonian Frames of Reference.” Mathematical Gazette 39 (1955): 287–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrea, W. “On the Significance of Newtonian Cosmology.” The Astronomical Journal 60 (1955): 271–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrea, W. “Newtonian Cosmology.” Nature 175 (1955): 466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrea, W. and Milne, E. “Newtonian Universes and the Curvature of Space.” Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Oxford Series 5 (1934): 73–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, J. Matter and Motion. New York: Dover, 1952.Google Scholar
Milne, E. “A Newtonian Expanding Universe.” Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Oxford Series 5 (1934): 64–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milne, E. “On ‘Absolute Acceleration’.” Nature 150 (1942): 489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Misner, C., Thorne, K. and Wheeler, J. Gravitation. San Francisco: Freeman, 1973.Google Scholar
Sklar, L. “Absolute Space and the Metaphysics of Theories.” Nous 4 (1972): 289–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, L. Space, Time, and Spacetime. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Synge, J. “On the Concept of Gravitational Force and Gauss's Theorem in General Relativity.” Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, 2nd. series 5 (1937): 93–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trautman, A. “Comparison of Newtonian and Relativistic Theories of Space-Time.” In Perspectives in Geometry and Relativity. Edited by Hoffmann, B. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Trautman, A. “Sur la Théorie Newtonienne de la Gravitation.” Comptes Rendus A257 (1963): 617–620.Google Scholar