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Inertia, Gravitation and Metaphysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Lawrence Sklar
Lawrence Sklar*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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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

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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.

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