Philosophical Problems of Space and Time
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Adolf Grünbaum |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Space Time |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 1963 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 884 (second edition) |
| ISBN | 978-9027703583 |
Philosophical Problems of Space and Time (1963; second edition 1973) is a book about the nature of space and time by the philosopher Adolf Grünbaum. It is recognized as a major work in the philosophy of the natural sciences.
Summary
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg?lang=en){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2018) |
Grünbaum discusses the scientific and mathematical fields of geometry, chronometry, and geochronometry. He also provides an account of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) of the physicist Isaac Newton, as well as the work of other physicists such as Albert Einstein, and that of the mathematician Bernhard Riemann. He criticizes the views of the philosophers Ernest Nagel and Jacques Maritain, arguing that in The Structure of Science (1961) Nagel misinterprets the philosopher of science Henri Poincaré and that in The Degrees of Knowledge (1932) Maritain presents an unsound and incorrect interpretation of the nature of geometry.[1]
Publication history
Philosophical Problems of Space and Time was first published by Alfred A. Knopf in the United States in 1963. In 1964, the book was published by Routledge and Kegan Paul in the United Kingdom. In 1969, a revised version was published in Russian translation in the Soviet Union by Progress Publishers. In 1973, an enlarged section was published in English by D. Reidel Publishing Company.[2]
Reception
Robert S. Cohen and the philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky, writing in the second edition of Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, stated that the book was "promptly recognized to be one of the few major works in the philosophy of the natural sciences of this generation" upon its original publication. They believed that this was partly because Grünbaum showed devotion to both "actual science and philosophical understanding" and combined "detail with scope." They credited him with dealing with the "problems of space and time" in their "full depth and complexity".[3]
The philosopher Roger Scruton described Philosophical Problems of Space and Time as the most comprehensive discussion of non-Euclidean space in Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey (1994), though he added that the work was "far from inviting".[4] The philosopher Philip L. Quinn, writing in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2005), called Grünbaum's thesis about physical geometry and chronometry "striking".[5]
References
Footnotes
- ^ Grünbaum 1974, pp. 1, 4, 8, 12, 91, 138, 148–150.
- ^ Grünbaum 1974, pp. iv, xvii.
- ^ Cohen & Wartofsky 1974, p. xiii.
- ^ Scruton 1997, p. 572.
- ^ Quinn 2005, p. 355.
Bibliography
- Books
- Cohen, Robert S.; Wartofsky, Marx W. (1974). Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. Boston: D. Reidel Publishing. ISBN 90 277 0358 2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Grünbaum, Adolf (1974). Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. Boston: D. Reidel Publishing. ISBN 90 277 0358 2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Quinn, Philip L.; Honderich, Ted, Editor (2005). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926479-1.
{{cite book}}:|first2=has generic name (help); Invalid|ref=harv(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Scruton, Roger (1997). Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey. London: Arrow Books. ISBN 0-7493-1902-X.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)