Albert Einstein's Philosophical Views and the Theory of Relativity: A Soviet Marxist View (Marxism Made Cheap)

By D P Gribanov

From the Author: This book aims to bring out the place and role of philosophical science in the creation of the theory of relativity. That calls (a) for determination of real substance of Einstein's philosophical opinions, since he has been numbered in practice in all philosophical schools and trends, and (b) for clarification of the sources that influenced the shaping of his outlook. These sources were the works of the founders of classical mechanics and electrodynamics, separate propositions of the natural sciences, and the many philosophical works that Einstein was acquainted with. For this purpose I analyse his attitude to the ideas of ancient thinkers, to metaphysical materialism, to the works of Hume, Berkeley, Kant, and Mach, and to neopositivism, etc. An integral idea of Einstein's philosophical outlook can be reconstructed from his separate statements. When surveying the scientific and philosophical premises of the theory of relativity, I include the doctrine of matter in them, in addition to those of time, space, and motion (as is usual). I analyse the evolution of this category and also elucidate Einstein's role in affirming the idea of the existence of matter in the form of a field as well as substance. I thereby show that the sources of the theory of relativity are linked with his study of matter in its different forms and connections. The theory of relativity thus has its roots in the experimental and theoretical generalisations of Faraday and Maxwell, and not just in the experiments of Fizeau, Michelson, and others. I have also demonstrated the role of philosophical ideas in Einstein's scientific work when creating the special and general theories of relativity. I elucidate the philosophical importance of relativistic physics, and investigate the epistemological roots of the distortions of its content.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F6BFDPNL
• ISBN13: 9798281234016
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 263 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.8" x 6.2"