Synopses & Reviews
This four-volume work represents the most comprehensive documentation and study of the creation of general relativity. Einstein's 1912 Zurich notebook is published for the first time in facsimile and transcript and commented on by today's major historians of science. Additional sources from Einstein and others, who from the late 19th to the early 20th century contributed to this monumental development, are presented here in translation for the first time. The volumes offer detailed commentaries and analyses of these sources that are based on a close reading of these documents supplemented by interpretations by the leading historians of relativity.
Review
From the reviews: These volumes prove that to Wittgenstein's saying that "Genius is what makes us forget skill" ought to be added the statement "when viewing the finished product." Genius is also the ability to master the available resources and techniques and to synthesize them in a manner that overwhelms. The volumes are the product of a remarkable cooperative effort on the part of five of the most distinguished Einstein scholars. They deciphered and analyzed the extended research notes that Einstein made from 1912 to 1915 in his struggle to arrive at the final formulation of his theory of general relativity. In doing so they have given us deep new insights on Einstein's creativity and on creativity in general, on context, on the role of past resources and expertise, and on the function of analogies. Their researches, observations and commentary have also made us think anew of the concept of a scientific revolution. Their splendid work is surely one of the most important and seminal scholarly accomplishments of recent times. S.S. Schweber, Brandeis University, USA "The publication of The Genesis of General Relativity marks the outcome of 10 years of research into the origins of Einstein's General Relativity Theory ... . It provides a comprehensive study and in-depth analysis of how the work of Albert Einstein and his contemporaries changes our understanding of space, time and gravitation. ... At the center of this reconstruction, is a commentary of Einstein's unpublished research notes, so-called 'Zurich Notebook', presented in their entirety for the first time." (Renn Jürgen, www.physorg.com, February, 2007) These volumes are the result of over two decades of effort, by most of the leading scholars in the field, to understand the process that culminated in 1915 and 1916 in Einstein's publication of the general theory of relativity. In addition to relativity physicists the project involved, both individually and more frequently collaboratively, historians and philosophers of science. The central objective was, through this richly documented case study, to identify universal features of the epistemological transformation that the authors have called a "Copernican process": How is it that heuristic guides can render conceptual changes that invalidate their use? This dynamical transmutation is firmly rooted in received societal and disciplinary scientific knowledge. In the particular case under study here, most relativists will probably have little trouble rejecting the mistaken popular notion that Einstein was an isolated genius, creating his new world through shear inspired imagination... Donald Salisbury, July 2008 To read more of this review - paste this link into your browser. http://arxiv1.library.cornell.edu/abs/0807.3706v1
Synopsis
The transition from classical to modern physics in the ?rst half of the twentieth c- tury by quantum and relativity theories affected some of the most fundamental notions of physical thinking, such as matter, radiation, space, and time. This tran- tion thus represents a challenge for any attempt to understand the structures of a s- enti?c revolution. The present four-volume work aims at a comprehensive account of the way in which the work of Albert Einstein and his contemporaries changed our understanding of space, time, and gravitation. The conceptual framework of classical nineteenth-century physics had to be fundamentally restructured and reinterpreted in order to arrive at a theory of gravitation compatible with the new notions of space and time established in 1905 by Einstein s special theory of relativity. Whereas the classical theory of gravitation postulated an instantaneous action at a distance, Einstein s new relativistic kinematics rather suggested an analogy between the gravitational ?eld and the electromagnetic ?eld, propagating with a ?nite speed. It is therefore not surprising that Einstein was not alone in addressing the problem of formulating a theory of gravitation that complies with the kinematics of relativity t- ory. The analysis of these alternative approaches, as well as of earlier alternative approaches to gravitation within classical physics, turns out to be crucial for identi- ing the necessities and contingencies in the actual historical development."
Synopsis
This work represents the most comprehensive documentation and study of the creation of general relativity. Einstein's 1912 Zurich notebook is published for the first time in facsimile and transcript and commented on by today's major historians of science.