The Theory of Relativity or As Einstein Himself Said "The Theory of Invariance" - Thoughts on a Lecture by Stanley Jaki

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"For the record, Einstein's Theory of Relativity does not uphold moral relativism. If anything, the theory is an expression of absolutism: the speed of light is absolute and invariant, i.e., the same for all observers." (webmaster, the Augustine Club, Columbia University 2002)


As distinguished physicist and Templeton Prize winner Stanley Jaki pointed out in his lecture The Absolute Beneath the Relative: Reflections on Einstein's Theories, the choice of the word "relative" for the Theory of Relativity is one of the most unfortunate in the history of physics.

Einstein was actually looking for (and found) the constant, the universal, the absolute and the invariant. He didn't find the relative--he found the universal that is behind and applies in any relative frame of reference.

One of his guiding principles was that the laws of physics must be the same in all frames of reference. Likewise, the speed of light is a constant, when viewed from any frame of reference (first in all inertial frames, and then extended in the General Theory of Relativity to frames of reference involving acceleration too).

In other words, the laws of physics are constant and the speed of light is a constant regardless of the viewpoint of the observer.

If those laws retained their original form, regardless of the frame to which they were related, it is only because they reflected an objective, invariant, absolute cosmic order and reality. . . . Indeed Einstein himself suggested that Special Relativity should have been called the
theory of invariance.

Similarly, he theorized the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass. Again, an absolute and universal law.

Per Dr. Jaki, Einstein was very interested in electrodynamics when he was young, and throughout his life. He felt that physics would ultimately return to "the program which may properly be called as the Maxwellian--namely the description of physical reality in terms of fields, which satisfy partial differential equations without singularities."

The singularities here refers to particles in the Newtonian sense, says Jaki. Not that Einstein was denying the role of corpuscular discontinuous matter, useful for specifying constants and boundaries in particular cases. )In fact, his first March paper in 1905 concerning the dispersion and absorption of light showed, using what he knew about the behavior of gases and applying statistical physics, that light is also a particle/photon).

But what he meant is that Maxwell's equations are only safeguarded if a universal speed of light, invariant in all frames of reference, is postulated.

Just for review, Einstein derived all his work from two simple postulates:

1. The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames.
2. The speed of light is a constant in all inertial frames.


On the face of it, says Professor Jaki, the theory of general relativity is a further exercise in further relativization. The impossibility of specifying any frame of reference as privileged over any other involving constant velocity is extended to include acceleration.

The three classic observational consequences of general relativity: the bending of light, the precession of the perihelion of Mercury, and gravitational redshift actually also imply equivalence and unification, namely

the equivalence of gravitational and inertial masses.

The beauty of the power and and sheer simplicity of this principle is breath taking (my sentiments).



Read Rev. Jaki Stanley's entire lecture here in pdf The Intercollegiate Review spring/summer 1985

Read in nonpdf at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/jaki/absolute.htm




Rev. Jaki Doctorate in Systematic Theology, Rome, Istituto Pontificio di S. Anselmo, 1950,
PhD (Physics, Fordham University, 1957) was distinguished professor at Seton Hall and the author of many books on physics and cosmology. read more

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