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Is Signal Synchrony Independent of Transport Synchrony?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Brian Ellis*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University

Extract

Beauregard ([1], p. 488) claims that Bowman and I were mistaken in saying that “… if the empirical predictions of the Special Theory regarding clock transport are correct, [then] a slow transport definition of simultaneity can be constructed that is logically independent of any signal definition, but is in fact equivalent to the standard signal definition” ([2], p. 131) His objection is not to the empirical concordance of the two criteria, but to the claim that the two are logically independent. His argument is that we fail to take account of Winnie's Passage Time Principle ([4], p. 228), and that if due account is taken of this principle, then “the concordance between the two criteria is logically guaranteed by the synchrony-free factual core of the STR” ([1], p. 488). However, one cannot show that A is not logically independent of B by showing that it is not independent of B and C. Hence, Beauregard's argument fails against the quoted passage.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1978

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References

[1] Beauregard, L.The Sui Generis Conventionality of Simultaneity,” Philosophy of Science 43 (1976): 469–90.10.1086/288706CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Ellis, B. and Bowman, P.Conventionality in Distant Simultaneity,” Philosophy of Science 34 (1967): 116–36.10.1086/288136CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3] Ellis, B.On Conventionality and Simultaneity—A Reply,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 49 (1971): 177203.10.1080/00048407112341201CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Winnie, J.Special Relativity without One-Way Velocity Assumptions, Parts I and II,” Philosophy of Science 37 (1970): 8199 and 223–238.10.1086/288281CrossRefGoogle Scholar