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Full Idea
If the theory of relativity might be thought to support an idealist construal of space and time, it is no less absolutistic about space-time than Newton's theory was about space.
Gist of Idea
Relativity is as absolutist about space-time as Newton was about space
Source
J. Alberto Coffa (The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap [1991])
Book Ref
Coffa,J.Alberto: 'The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap' [CUP 1993], p.196
A Reaction
[He cites Minkowski, Weyl and Cartan for this conclusion] Coffa is clearly a bit cross about philosophers who draw naive idealist and relativist conclusions from relativity.
18279 | Relativity is as absolutist about space-time as Newton was about space [Coffa] |
18263 | The semantic tradition aimed to explain the a priori semantically, not by Kantian intuition [Coffa] |
18266 | Mathematics generalises by using variables [Coffa] |
18270 | Choice suggests that intensions are not needed to ensure classes [Coffa] |
18272 | Platonism defines the a priori in a way that makes it unknowable [Coffa] |