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On Massey's Explication of Grünbaum's Conception of Metric

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Bas C. van Fraassen
Bas C. van Fraassen*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

Professor Massey's exposition and analysis [5] of Professor Grünbaum's writings on metric aspects of space seem to me both very helpful in understanding those writings and to contain a considerable original contribution to the subject. Nevertheless I would like to argue that there is an alternative to Massey's explication which seems to me more faithful to Grünbaum's remarks; it seems at least to have the virtue of not forcing Grünbaum to reject the usual mathematical definitions of the notions used.

Type
A Panel Discussion of Grünbaum's Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , December 1969 , pp. 346 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

1

The author wishes to thank Professors Massey and Grünbaum for their helpful correspondence; and Professor P. Asquith, Michigan State University, and Professor C. Glymour, Princeton University, for stimulating discussions.

References

[1] Birkhoff, G., Lattice Theory, American Mathematical Society (Colloquium Publications XXV), New York, 1940.10.1090/coll/025CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Grünbaum, A., Geometry and Chronometry in Philosophical Perspective, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1968.Google Scholar
[3] Grünbaum, A., Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown (Conn.), 1967.Google Scholar
[4] Grünbaum, A., Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, Knopf, New York, 1963.Google Scholar
[5] Massey, G., “Toward a Clarification of Grünbaum's Conception of an Intrinsic Metric,” Philosophy of Science, vol. 36, no. 4 (this issue).Google Scholar
[6] Reichenbach, H., The Direction of Time. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar