Physical Systems: Conceptual Pathways between Flat Space-time and Matter

✍ Scribed by Ori Belkind (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 249
• Series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 264
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Based on the concept of a physical system, this book offers a new philosophical interpretation of classical mechanics and the Special Theory of Relativity. According to Belkind’s view the role of physical theory is to describe the motions of the parts of a physical system in relation to the motions of the whole. This approach provides a new perspective into the foundations of physical theory, where motions of parts and wholes of physical systems are taken to be fundamental, prior to spacetime, material properties and laws of motion. He defends this claim with a constructive project, deriving basic aspects of classical theories from the motions of parts and wholes. This exciting project will challenge readers to reevaluate how they understand the structure of the physical world in which we live.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xiii
Physical Systems and Physical Thought....Pages 1-30
Interpretations of Spacetime and the Principle of Relativity....Pages 31-58
Primitive Motion Relationalism....Pages 59-91
The Metaphysics of Time....Pages 93-117
The History of Newtonian Mass....Pages 119-144
Physical Systems and Mass....Pages 145-162
Structural Assumptions, Newton’s Scientific Method, and the Universal Law of Gravitation....Pages 163-190
The Special Theory of Relativity....Pages 191-215
Conclusion....Pages 217-225
Back Matter....Pages 227-234

✦ Subjects

Philosophy of Science; Astrophysics and Astroparticles