6533b81ffe1ef96bd127708c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Space-Time, Phenomenology, and the Picture Theory of Language

Hans Herlof Grelland

subject

Phenomenology (philosophy)symbols.namesakeTheory of relativitySpacetimeIntuitionismSpace timeMinkowski spacesymbolsComputer Science::Programming LanguagesEinsteinAbstract languageMathematicsEpistemology

description

To estimate Minkowski’s introduction of space-time in relativity, the case is made for the view that abstract language and mathematics carries meaning not only by its connections with observation but as pictures of facts. This view is contrasted to the more traditional intuitionism of Hume, Mach, and Husserl. Einstein’s attempt at a conceptual reconstruction of space and time as well as Husserl’s analysis of the loss of meaning in science through increasing abstraction is analysed. Wittgenstein’s picture theory of language is used to explain how meaning is conveyed by abstract expressions, with the Minkowski space as a case.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2010-01-01
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13538-5_13