71.
Four Lectures
on the
Theory
of
Relativily,
Held at Princeton
University
in
May
1921
[Einstein 1922c]
DATED
before
4
January
1922
PUBLISHED 1922
by Vieweg (Braunschweig)
English translation
by
Edwin Plimpton Adams (London: Methuen, 1922;
Prince-
ton:
Princeton University Press,
1923;
later editions
in
English: 2nd:
1945; 3rd:
1950;
4th:
1953; 5th:
1956).
SPACE AND
TIME
IN
PRE-RELATIVITY PHYSICS
THE
theory
of
relativity
is
intimately
connected with
[1]
the
theory
of
space
and
time. I
shall
therefore
begin
with
a
brief
investigation
of
the
origin
of
our
ideas of
space
and
time,
although
in
doing
so
I
know that I
introduce
a
controversial
subject.
The
object
of
all
science,
whether
natural
science
or psychology,
is
to
co-ordinate
our
experi-
ences
and
to
bring
them into
a
logical system.
How
are
our
customary
ideas of
space
and time
related
to
the
character of
our experiences?
The
experiences
of
an
individual
appear
to
us
arranged
in
a
series of
events;
in this series the
single
events
which
we
remember
appear to
be
ordered
according to
the
crite-
rion of
“earlier” and
“later,”
which
cannot
be
analysed
further. There
exists,
therefore, for the individual,
an
I-time,
or subjective
time.
This
in itself
is
not
measurable.
I
can, indeed,
associate
numbers with
the
events,
in such
a
way
that
a
greater
number
is
associated
with
the
later
event
than
with
an
earlier
one;
but
the
nature
of
this
associa-
tion
may
be
quite arbitrary.
This
association
I
can
define
by
means
of
a
clock
by
comparing
the
order
of
events
fur-
nished
by
the clock
with
the
order
of the
given
series of
events.
We
understand
by
a
clock
something
which
pro-
vides
a
series of
events
which
can
be
counted,
and
which has
other
properties
of which
we
shall
speak
later.
By
the aid
of
language
different individuals
can,
to
a cer-
tain
extent, compare
their
experiences.
Then
it
turns out
[1]
Previous Page Next Page