Foundations of Space-Time Theories: Relativistic Physics and Philosophy of Science

It isn't often that one comes across books of this calibre: Friedman has put together nothing short of a masterpiece. His depth and clarity of exposition are laudable, and so are his findings. In an impressive effort, Friedman has found his way through the intricate and tangled maze--or mess--that spacetime physics and philosophy has become. The most important revelation to be learnt is in what sense theoretical spacetime remains an absolute and literal reality despite its unobservability: on the one hand, general relativity did not achieve a relativization of all motion (or Mach's programme), and in it acceleration remains an absolute concept; on the other, spacetime can be granted physical reality (rather than it being a mere mathematical representation) due to its theoretical unifying power.Friedman's book exceeded my already high expectations. In a time in which lousy scientific writing has become commonplace, it is an utmost pleasure to stumble upon a book such as this one. To put it in a nutshell, this book is enlightening in an extraordinary way. Superb!

The complexity of the mathematics of General Relativity produce an unfortunate side-effect: however satisfying they are from an aesthetic viewpoint, dealing with their rigour obscures the philosophical basis of their development. Friedman does an admirable job of investigating the currents of early twentieth century thought that led Einstein down the particular road he chose, via a number of useful visualizations made by clear and surprisingly elegant prose and clean math, without dumbing down the science involved in the name of science 'popularization.'In short, Friedman does an excellent job of presenting the 'why' of relativity, rather than just the 'how'.