Space and time

Hans Reichenbach

pp. 232-235

in: Maria Reichenbach, Robert S. Cohen (eds), Selected writings 1909–1953, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

The philosophical content of modem science has found perhaps its clearest expression in the widespread interest of the public in Einstein's theory of relativity. While this interest set in, of course, only after the theory had taken firm root in physical circles, and while it is certainly riddled with misunderstandings of the physical theory, it is nonetheless only to be explained by the fact that the theory resolves more than merely technical problems, that it touches upon genuinely philosophical issues the intellectual consequences of which are of a significance similar to that of Copernicus' discovery in his day.