Reviews
Concepts of Simultaneity excels at clearly explaining subtle but important issues. The book is incisive and valuable; it will appeal not only to historians and philosophers of physics but also to physicists drawn to the elements of special relativity.
This interesting, carefully crafted analysis of some fundamental ideas belongs in good college library collections... Highly recommended.
Concepts of Simultaneity provides a welcome survey of the development of our views and theories of simultaneity, bringing together sources in history, physics and philosophy. The book covers an impressive array of material.
The view of simultaneity presented by Max Jammer is almost breathtaking... I think Jammer has written a valuable book.
Presents a very well-researched and thought-provoking analysis of the topic.
I highly recommend the book.
Jammer's book is a significant contribution to the literature on the physics of time and merits the attention of both physicists and philosophers of science.
The study forms a comprehensive history of the concept of simultaneity from earliest antiquity to the present, the first with such a historical sweep. In addition, Max Jammer has done an invaluable service in bringing together in an impressive manner material related to the extended controversies associated with the concept of simultaneity within 20th-century physics and philosophy of physics.
Book Details
Preface
Introduction
1. Terminological Preliminaries
2. The Concept of Simultaneity in Antiquity
3. Medieval Conceptions of Simultaneity
4. The Concept of Simultaneity in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Preface
Introduction
1. Terminological Preliminaries
2. The Concept of Simultaneity in Antiquity
3. Medieval Conceptions of Simultaneity
4. The Concept of Simultaneity in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
5. The Concept of Simultaneity in Classical Physics
6. The Transition to the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity
7. Simultaneity in the Special Theory of Relativity
8. The Reception of the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity
9. The Conventionality Thesis
10. The Promulgation of the Conventionality Thesis
11. Symmetry and Transitivity of Simultaneity
12. Arguments against the Conventionality Thesis
13. Clock Transport Synchrony
14. Recent Debates on the Conventionality of Simultaneity
15. Simultaneity in General Relativity and in Quantum Mechanics
Epilogue
Index