REICHENBACH, HANS.

Axiomatik der relativistischen Raum-Zeit-Lehre.

Braunschweig, Vieweg & Sohn, 1924. 8vo. Original printed orange wrappers. Wear to spine and some minor overall soiling to extrimities. Previous owner's name to free front end-paper. Internally fine and clean. X, 156, (6) pp.

First printing of Reichenbach famous work on the philosophy of space and time with point of reference in Einstein's theory of relativity.
"Reichenbach, who perhaps contributed the most to the recent development of the casual theory of time, approached his axiomatic research from the point of view of epistemology, that is, the theory of physical knowledge. The Axiomatik der relativistischen Raum-Zeit-Lehre, HIS GREAT ATTEMPT AT A PHILOSOPHICAL INTERPRETATION OF RELATIVITY, A BOOK WHICH IS ESSENTIAL TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE LOGICAL STRUCTURE OF RELATIVITY, is almost entirely dominated by the idea of causal action of which space and time are only expressions of structural features". (Mehlberg. Essay on the causal theory of time, P. 105)

"By 1924 Reichenbach had developed his theory of "equivalent descriptions," a central tenet of his theory of knowledge. It is formulated in his Axiomatik der relativistischen Raum-Zeit-Lehre (1924), and it is developed with new applications in his works on quantum mechanics and time. This theory attributes an indispensable role in physical theory to conventions but rejects the extreme conventionalism of Poincaré and his school. Reichenbach insisted that a completely stated description or physical theory must include conventional elements, in particular such "coordinating definitions" as equal lengths and simultaneous times. These definitions are not bits of knowledge, for such questions as whether or not two rods distant from each other have the same length are not empirically answerable. Hence such coordinations must be regarded as conventions, as definitions, as neither true nor false." (DSB)

Order-nr.: 44873