[Revised entry by Thomas A. Ryckman on April 4, 2024.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Early philosophical interpretations of the general theory of relativity selected distinct aspects of that theory for praise or favored recognition. Positivist followers of Mach initially lauded Einstein’s attempt to implement a “relativization of inertia” – roughly, that the inertia of a body (inertial mass, local inertial behavior) is an effect due to presence of all other masses – in the general theory. But Machians were daunted by the theory’s unprecedented distance between mathematical…

Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More