282 DOC.
25
FOUNDATIONS OF GENERAL THEORY
Doc.
25
On
the Foundations of the Generalized
Theory
of
Relativity
and
the
Theory
of
Gravitation
by
A. Einstein
[Physikalische Zeitschrift
15 (1914):
176-180]
[1]
The
arguments
in what follows have been
prompted by
a
critique, published
in this
journal,1
which
Mr.
Mie
devoted
to
the
theory
that
I
worked
out
in collaboration with
[3]
Mr.
Grossmann.
I
do
not
agree
with the conclusion of this
critique,
and
I cannot
escape
the
impression
that Mr. Mie has
not
correctly
understood
my
theoretical
intentions.
But at
the
same
time
I
believe that the
incompleteness
of
my previous
presentation
of the main ideas of the
theory
is
to
be blamed for this misunderstand-
ing.
This
incompleteness
derives from the fact
that,
in
many respects, I
had
not
yet
achieved
complete clarity myself.
For that
reason
I
will
briefly go through
the
fundamental
questions
here
one
by one,
but in
doing
so
I
assume
that
the
reader is
already
familiar with the
theory
as
far
as
its formal
content is
concerned.
1.
The
theory presently
called "the
theory
of
relativity"
is based
on
the
assumption
that
there
are
somehow
preexisting "privileged"
reference
systems
K with
respect
to
which the laws of
nature
take
on
an
especially
simple
form,
even though
one
raises
in
vain the
question
of what could
bring
about the
privilegings
of
these
reference
systems
K
as compared
with other
(e.g., "rotating")
reference
systems
K'.
This
constitutes,
in
my opinion,
a
serious
deficiency
of
this
theory.
These
privileged
reference
systems
are
postulated
as
those with
respect
to
which the
principle
of
the
constancy
of
the
velocity
of
light
in
a
vacuum
is to
be valid. There
can
be
no
doubt
that this
principle
is
of
far-reaching
significance;
and
yet, I cannot
believe in its
exact
validity.
It
seems
to
me
unbelievable that the
course
of
any process (e.g.,
that of the
propagation
of
light
in
a
vacuum)
could be conceived of
as
independent
of
all other
[4]
events
in the world. But whatever
one may
think of
such
arguments,
it
is in
any
case
interesting
to
pose
the
question:
To what
extent is
it
possible
to
build
a
theory
of
[5]
relativity
that does
not
have the
constancy
of
the
velocity
of
light
as
its foundation?
2.
The old
theory
of
relativity
follows
formally
from
the
assumption
that,
for
every justified
substitution of the
space-time variables,
ds2
= Edx2v
(1)
is
an
invariant,
which
assumption
derives from the
principle
of
the
constancy
of the
velocity
of
light. Accordingly, only
linear
orthogonal
substitutions
appear as justified
[2]
115
(1914):
115,
169.
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