Quote: there is no absolute space, no absolute time, no simultaneity across distance, not even geometry; these concepts are no more than a language

Quotation

1. There is no absolute space, and we only conceive of relative motion ... 2. There is no absolute time. When we say that two periods are equal, the statement has no meaning, and can only acquire a meaning by a convention. 3. ... we have not even direct intuition of the simultaneity of two events occurring in two different places. [Poincare, "Mesure du temps," Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale, t. vi., p. 1-13, January 1898.] ... 4. Finally, is not our Euclidean geometry in itself only a kind of convention of language? ... Thus, absolute space, absolute time, and even geometry are not conditions which are imposed on mechanics. All these things no more existed before mechanics than the French language can be logically said to have existed before the truths which are expressed in French.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

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