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Einstein, Cassirer, and General Covariance — Then and Now

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

T. A. Ryckman
T. A. Ryckman
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

Recent archival research has brought about a new understanding of the import of Einstein's puzzling remarks (1916) attributing a physical meaning to general covariance. Debates over the scope and meaning of general covariance still persist, even within physics. But already in 1921 Cassirer identified the significance of general covariance as a novel stage in the development of the criterion of objectivity within physics; an account of this development, and its implications, is the primary task undertaken in his monograph of “epistemological considerations” on the theory of relativity. Cassirer's assessment is correct: general covariance, understood as an injunction against dynamical theories with background elements, is a “limiting heuristic principle” guiding Einstein's fundamental conception of a “complete field theory”; as such, it underlies a “separation principle” built into the conceptual framework of the EPR criticism of quantum mechanics. In conclusion, a further parallel is noted: mutual recognition that the principle of general covariance is but a form of “anthropomorphism.”

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Science in Context , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , winter 1999, pp. 585 - 619
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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