ABSTRACT
Dr Joseph Cosgrove is a philosopher of science at Providence College, Rhode Island. His study can be read as a critique, by a reflective physicist, of Hermann Minkowski’s concept of spacetime, but informed by both the history and philosophy of relativity. A major qualification for this is his competent grasp of both special and general relativities. While respecting the fertility, beauty and formal usefulness of Minkowski’s theory of spacetime, Cosgrove strongly challenges its ontological status. He argues that Minkowski’s attempt to merge the concepts of space and time into a single “absolute” homogeneous continuum is incoherent. For him, his criticism of Minkowski does not require tortuous reasoning; it mainly requires common sense.
Cosgrove’s study is part of a long tradition of criticism of the ontological status Minkowski’s spacetime theory, beginning at least with Einstein himself. In a close analysis, he concludes that Minkowski’s concept of spacetime ‘plays no vital role’ in special relativity or even in general relativity (the theory of gravity).
