Juan Ferret (Philosophy Department, University of Texas at El Paso)
Abstract
A short time after Einstein crafted the equations and interpretation of General Relativity (GR), the French philosopher and mathematician Henri Bergson, criticized Einstein and Riemann for neglecting the possibility that, in GR, metrics could be interpreted as non-spatialized continuous multiplicities that find their own principle in the forces or phenomena unfolding within them. Einstein's reply to Bergson, in 1921, became well known and satisfied most scientists and philosophers at that time in that Bergson had made serious mistakes in his interpretation of GR, thus rendering Bergson's critique moot. In this paper I will show that although parts of Bergson's critique were indeed ill-conceived, as Einstein pointed out, his claim that GR should be reinterpreted as time-centered rather than space-centered does not need to be rejected. Upon examination of Bergson's claim, I will show that it is indeed possible to interpret General Relativity as a theory of time-space rather than space-time. Most interpretations of relativity theory (I obviously cannot show this in full in this paper but I will offer some examples) assume a metaphysics of spatialization, whether relational or substantival, where space is more fundamental than time as Newton assumed and Clarke argued. Using aspects of Leibniz's relational account, his principle of Equivalence, and Bergson's idea of duration, I will show how a new interpretation of GR emerges. My argument and analysis will show that if we do reinterpret GR in this way, some of the persistent problems in GR-including the problem of manifold substantivalism, the problem of the direction of time, and the problem of the structure and composition of the metric field-may indeed disappear.