Philosophers and Einstein's Relativity: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

1. (Mis-)Interpretations of the Theory of Relativity – Considerations on how they Arise and how to Analyze Them (Klaus Hentschel).- 2. A Machian Interpretation of the Theory of Relativity? Joseph Petzoldt’s Reading of Einstein (Chiara Russo Krauss).- 3. The End of Matter? On the Early Reception of Relativity in neo-Kantian Philosophy (Paolo Pecere).- 4. Cassirer and Klein on the Geometrical Foundations of Relativistic Physics (Francesca Biagioli).- 5. Natorp, Cassirer and the Influence of Relativity Theory on Neo-Kantian Philosophy (Luigi Laino).- 6. Coordination, Geometrization, Unification. An Overview of the Reichenbach–Einstein Debate on the Unified Field Theory Program (Marco Giovanelli).- 7. Special Relativity from the Viewpoint of R. W. Sellars’ The Philosophy of Physical Realism (Matthias Neuber).

Chiara Russo Krauss is associate professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Naples "Federico II". She began her career studying Richard Avenarius' empirio-criticism. Thereafter, her research focused on the philosophical debate on the development of scientific psychology (Wundt, Avenarius and Scientific Psychology, Palgrave McMillan, 2019) and, more generally, on the epistemological problems related to the advances of science in the late XIX century and early XX century, especially in the milieu of late positivism, such as Ernst Mach, Richard Avenarius and Joseph Petzoldt (The Philosophy of Joseph Petzoldt, Bloomsbury, 2023). Her most recent research concerns the neo-Kantianism of Friedrich Albert Lange.
Laino is Research Fellow for Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Naples "Federico II" and an Adjunct Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at Università degli Studi della Basilicata, where he holds the chair of “Theories of Mind-Body Relations”. He was a Teaching Assistant for Philosophy of Science at the University of Naples Federico II for several years (from 2013 to 2019). He has published papers on important journals such as “Foundations of Physics” (Is Knowledge of Physical Reality Still Kantian? Some Remarks About the Transcendental Character of Loop Quantum Gravity).

This book offers an up-to-date insight into the early philosophical debate on Einsteinian relativity. The essays explore the reception and interpretation of Einstein’s ideas by some of the most important philosophical schools of the time, such as logical positivism (Reichenbach), neo-Kantianism (Cassirer, Natorp), critical realism (Sellars), and radical empiricism (Mach). The book is aimed at physicists and historians of science researching the epistemological implications of the theory of relativity, as well as to scholars in philosophy interested in understanding how leading philosophical figures of the early twentieth century reacted to the relativistic revolution.

An up-to-date insight into the early philosophical debate on the theory of relativity Brings together a group of top scholars to explore the main historical interpretations of Einstein’s relativity Highlights epistemological implication and philosophical interpretations of the theory of relativity