On the histories of relativity. The propagation and elaboration of relativity theory in participant histories in Germany, 1905 - 1911.
Abstract
This essay explores the history and historiography of relativity through a study of the earliest, participant, histories of the subject. The author argues that participant histories from Einstein, Planck, Minkowski, and others provided an important means of shaping understandings of relativity - at a time when the theory was subject to major controversy and debate. One feature of the study is thus a detailed investigation of the use of historical resources in scientific research. Second, the accounts discussed provide a means of surveying the development of relativity in Germany. The study offers a new perspective on the complex process through which a plurality of approaches - many relativities with many histories - could become singular - one theory, one history - and through which the work of Einstein came to be sharply distinguished from that of others.
- Publication:
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Isis. Journal of the History of Science Society
- Pub Date:
- June 1998
- Bibcode:
- 1998Isis...89..263S
- Keywords:
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- History: Relativity Theory