Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 8: Geometric paradigms in modern physics

AGPhil 8.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 19, 2015, 15:00–15:30, H 0105

General relativity: a theory born in creative confusion — •Harvey Brown — Oxford University, Oxford, UK

A number of conceptual guiding principles were behind Einstein's development of general relativity; almost none of them proved to be completely sound. I will concentrate on the various ways Einstein interpreted Mach's Principle before finally abandoning it, and on the late adoption of the action-reaction principle in Einstein's promotion of his theory following correspondence with Moritz Schlick in 1920. The talk will be based on an article jointly published with Dennis Lehmkuhl: arXiv:1306.4902v1.