Space from Zeno to Einstein : Classic Readings with a Contemporary Commentary

by Nick Huggett (Ed.)

• ISBN13: 9780262082716
• ISBN10: 0262082713
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-22
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Learning through original texts can be a powerful heuristic tool. This book collects a dozen classic readings that are generally accepted as the most significant contributions to the philosophy of space. The readings have been selected both on the basis of their relevance to recent debates on the nature of space and on the extent to which they carry premonitions of contemporary physics. In his detailed commentaries, Nick Huggett weaves together the readings and links them to our modern understanding of the subject. Together the readings indicate the general historical development of the concept of space, and in his commentaries Huggett explains their logical relations. He also uses our contemporary understanding of space to help clarify the key ideas of the texts. One goal is to prepare the reader (both scientist and nonscientist) to learn and understand relativity theory, the basis of our current understanding of space. The readings are by Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Clarke, Berkeley, Kant, Mach, Poincaré, and Einstein.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Plato	1	(14)
Reading: Timaeus	1	(2)
Commentary and Introduction	3	(12)
Euclid	15	(14)
Reading: The Elements	15	(6)
Commentary	21	(8)
Zeno	29	(24)
Reading: Plato's Parmenides	29	(2)
Reading: Aristotle and Simplicius on Zeno's Paradoxes	31	(6)
Commentary	37	(16)
Aristotle	53	(32)
Reading: Physics	53	(8)
Reading: On the Heavens	61	(11)
Commentary	72	(13)
The Aristotelian Tradition	85	(6)
Descartes	91	(16)
Reading: The Principles of Philosophy	91	(8)
Commentary	99	(8)
Newton	107	(36)
Reading: On the Gravity and Equilibrium of Fluids (De Gravitatione)	107	(9)
Reading: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (The Principia)	116	(10)
Commentary	126	(17)
Leibniz and Clarke	143	(26)
Reading: The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence	143	(16)
Commentary	159	(10)
Berkeley and Mach	169	(20)
Reading: Berkeley's De Motu	169	(5)
Reading: Mach's The Science of Mechanics	174	(7)
Commentary	181	(8)
Space-Time	189	(8)
Kant and Handedness	197	(16)
Reading: Concerning the Ultimate Foundation of the Differentiation of Regions in Space	197	(6)
Commentary	203	(10)
Kant and Geometry	213	(22)
Reading: The Critique of Pure Reason	213	(8)
Commentary	221	(14)
Poincare	235	(18)
Reading: Space and Geometry	235	(6)
Reading: Experiment and Geometry	241	(2)
Commentary	243	(10)
Einstein	253	(14)
Reading: The Problem of Space, Ether, and the Field in Physics	253	(8)
Commentary	261	(6)
Index	267