Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:34:39.453Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Force of Newtonian Cosmology: Acceleration is Relative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John D. Norton
John D. Norton*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

1. Introduction. David Malament (1995) has described a natural and satisfying resolution of the traditional problems of Newtonian cosmology—natural in the sense that it effects the escape by altering Newtonian gravitation theory in a way that leaves its observational predictions completely unaffected. I am in full agreement with his approach. There is one part of his account, however, over which Malament has been excessively modest. The resolution requires a modification to Newtonian gravitation theory. Malament presents the modification as so straightforward as to be automatic. This trivializes the crucial postulate, which I shall call the “relativity of acceleration.” It is a significant physical statement in its own right and requires careful justification. Moreover the postulate proved easy to overlook for decades of discussion of the paradox. It really only becomes natural from the perspective of the newer geometric methods Malament exploits. There the postulate has become a commonplace. My purpose here is to develop the following:

  • While Newtonian cosmology can be repaired satisfactorily, in its traditional form it remains deeply troubled. These troubles can be expressed most vividly as the paradoxical contradictions indicated below. They persist in both the integral and differential formulations of Newtonian gravitation theory. (Section 2)

  • Malament's careful geometric treatment is necessarily dense. By taking some liberties with precision, his core result can be expressed in a far simpler form. (Section 4)

  • Attempts to avoid the resolution Malament describes do lead to disaster. Therefore this episode can be inverted and used as the strongest extant argument for the relativity of acceleration in Newtonian gravitation theory. (Section 5)

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 511 - 522
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

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 to John Earman and David Malament for helpful discussion.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.

References

Glymour, C. (1977), “Indistinguishable Space-Times and the Fundamental Group”, in Earman, J., Glymour, C. and Stachel, J. (eds.), Foundations of Space-Time Theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 50–60.Google Scholar
Layzer, D. (1954), “On the Significance of Newtonian Cosmology”, The Astronomical Journal 59: 268–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malament, D. (1977) “Causal Theories of Time and the Conventionality of Simultaneity”, Nous 11: 293–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malament, D. (1977a) “Observationally Indistinguishable Space-times”, in Earman, J., Glymour, C. and Stachel, J. (eds.), Foundations of Space-Time Theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 61–80.Google Scholar
Malament, D. (1995), “Is Newtonian Cosmology Really Inconsistent?” Philosophy of Science 62, p. 489–510.Google Scholar
Norton, J. D. (1992), “Philosophy of Space and Time”,“ in M. Salmon et al., Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 179–231.Google Scholar
Norton, J. D. (1993) “A Paradox in Newtonian Cosmology”, in Forbes, M., Hull, D. and Okruhlik, K. (eds.), PSA 1992: Proceedings of the 1992 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 412–420.Google Scholar
Norton, J. D. (1993a) “General Covariance and the Foundations of General Relativity: Eight Decades of Dispute”, Reports on Progress in Physics 56: 791–858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norton, J. D. (1994) “Why Geometry is not Conventional”, in Maier, U. and Schmidt, H.-J. (eds.), Semantical Aspects of Spacetime Theories. Mannheim: Wissenschaftsverlag, pp. 159–167.Google Scholar