Philosophical critique of Whitehead's theory of relativity

pp. 425-428

in: Adolf Grünbaum, Philosophical problems of space and time, Berlin, Springer, 1973

Abstract

Einstein's theory of relativity was probably the most important influence on Whitehead's philosophy of science. But Whitehead's endeavor to reinterpret and modify Einstein's STR and GTR in terms of the categories of his own natural philosophy issued in two important philosophical divergences from Einstein: first, as will be recalled from Chapter Twelve, Whitehead erects the STR on his espousal of a sensory absolute simultaneity for any given inertial system in opposition to Einstein's theses on simultaneity, and second, Whitehead repudiates the GTR, because he rejects on epistemological grounds Riemann's conception of the relation between geometry and physics, which Einstein had attempted to weave into the logical fabric of the GTR via Mach's Principle, as explained in Chapter Fourteen.