Philosophy of Science 66 (2):208-220 (1999)
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Abstract |
David Malament's (1977) well-known result, which is often taken to show the uniqueness of the Poincare-Einstein convention for defining simultaneity, involves an unwarranted physical assumption: that any simultaneity relation must remain invariant under temporal reflections. Once that assumption is removed, his other criteria for defining simultaneity are also satisfied by membership in the same backward (forward) null cone of the family of such cones with vertices on an inertial path. What is then unique about the Poincare-Einstein convention is that it is independent of the choice of inertial path in a given inertial frame, confirming a remark in Einstein 1905. Similarly, what is unique about the backward (forward) null cone definition is that it is independent of the state of motion of an observer at a point on the inertial path.
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DOI | 10.1086/392684 |
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References found in this work BETA
On Relativity Theory and Openness of the Future.Howard Stein - 1991 - Philosophy of Science 58 (2):147-167.
Causal Theories of Time and the Conventionality of Simultaneity.David Malament - 1977 - Noûs 11 (3):293-300.
Relativity and Geometry.R. Torretti - 1985 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 36 (1):100-104.
Conventionality in Distant Simulataneity.Brian Ellis & Peter Bowman - 1967 - Philosophy of Science 34 (2):116-136.
View all 9 references / Add more references
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Causality and Temporal Order in Special Relativity.Hanoch Ben-Yami - 2006 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 (3):459-479.
View all 20 citations / Add more citations
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