Gravitation as a universal force

Dennis Dieks

pp. 381-397

in: Synthese 73 (2), 1987.

Abstract

In his book Philosophie der Raum-Zeit-Lehre (1928) Reichenbach introduced the concept of “universal force”. Reichenbach's use of this concept was later severely criticized by Grünbaum. In this article it is argued that although Grünbaum's criticism is correct in an important respect, it misses part of Reichenbach's intentions. An attempt is made to clarify and defend Reichenbach's position, and to show that “universal force” is a useful notion in the physically important case of gravitation.