ABSTRACT
There are many different ways of deriving the Lorentz transformations. Historically it was consideration of the implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment that carried most weight with scientists. It is, however, possible to argue on a much more slender basis, and to show that the same considerations we adduced at the end of the last section to secure a conceptual grasp of what the Lorentz transformations really meant are enough also to show that they must take the form that they actually do. The argument is due to G. J. Whitrow and E. A. Milne. Communication cannot be instantaneous in space-time. There are two strands of egocentricity in our account of time and space, an egocentricity of reference and an egocentricity of knowledge. Our human knowledge of time and space is also egocentric, because it is based on experience, the experience of someone, some observer, and some subject, who has his own particular point of view.
