Papers by Ephraim-Stephen Essien
8. 2012: “Einstein’s Question (to Newton, Kant): Space and Time or Space-Time?” Journal of Complementary Reflection. 2.1. October 2012, pp 64-78., 2012
While indicating the distinctions between relativistic space-time and space and time conceptions ... more While indicating the distinctions between relativistic space-time and space and time conceptions in Newtonian physics and Kantian critical philosophy, this study also brings to the fore the antecedents Einstein might have had in Kantian philosophy, particularly on the concepts of space and time. Kant’s space and time entered into mainstream subjective idealism. Einstein rather situated space-time within a critical realism. There is space-time in relativity, while space and time remain Newtonian, Kantian. But these concepts date back to ancient philosophy. Space-time relativity currently shapes the modern world structure and a relativistic epistemology. His special and general theories of relativity were his detailed description of how bodies change their positions in space with time. Whereas special relativity described bodies in uniform motion, the general relativity was about non-uniform motion. Space is flat in special relativity and warped in general relativity theory. For Newton, space and time are absolutes; for Kant, space and time are a priori forms of intuition; while for Einstein, there is no space and time, but space-time, and so remains a property of matter.
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Papers by Ephraim-Stephen Essien