Historical and Philosophical Aspects of the Einstein World
Abstract
This article presents a brief review of some historical and philosophical aspects of Einstein's 1917 paper 'Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity', a landmark work that denoted the starting point of modern theoretical cosmology. Our presentation includes a discussion of Einstein's early views of issues such as the relativity of inertia, the curvature of space and the cosmological constant. Particular attention is paid to lesser-known aspects of Einstein's paper such as his failure to test his model against observation, his failure to consider the stability of the model and a slight mathematical confusion concerning the introduction of the cosmological constant term. Taken in conjunction with his later cosmological works, we find that Einstein's approach to cosmology was characterized by a pragmatic search for the simplest model of the universe that was consistent with the principles of relativity and with contemporaneous astronomical observation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1906.08678,
title = {Historical and Philosophical Aspects of the Einstein World},
author = {Cormac O'Raifeartaigh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.08678},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Conference paper presenting main results of earlier study [arXiv:1701.07261]. Accepted for publication in Einstein Studies Vol 15. Thinking about Space and Time; 100 Years of Applying and Interpreting General Relativity (Eds C. Beisbart, T. Sauer and C. Wuthrich)