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Is General Relativity Generally Relativistic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

Roger Jones
Roger Jones*
Affiliation:
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville
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Extract

Within the lore of nearly every scientific theory, among the facts, laws, theorems, and such that constitute the “truths” it expresses, are one or more principles. Physics textbooks, I know, usually mention them at the beginning, or during some interlude given over to general remarks or speculation. As examples, the uncertainty principle and correspondance principle of quantum mechanics come to mind (see, e.g., Messiah 1960). And associated with the general theory of relativity, which is particularly rich in principles, are a principle of general covariance, a principle of equivalence (or two), Mach's principle, and a general principle of relativity (see, e.g., Misner, Thome, and Wheeler 1973).

Where do principles come from? Generally, as I said, they are supposed to be “truths” about the working of the world: observations and experiments are appealed to as their sources. But this doesn't distinguish them from facts and laws.

Type
Part VI. Relativity Principles
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 363 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

Most of the ideas in this paper arose in conversations with Robert Geroch and David Malament. Discussions with John Earman and Michael Friedman have also been helpful. An earlier version of this paper was read at Memphis State University (Jones 1981). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants S0C77-07264 and SES79-26725.

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