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• Half-title
• Frontispiece
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Introduction
• Notes
• 1 Einstein’s Copernican Revolution
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Einstein as a Disciple of Boltzmann, Planck, and Lorentz
• 3. The Origins of Einstein’s New Perspective
• 4. Speculative Alternatives to Classical Physics
• 5. Statistical Mechanics as a Bridge between Classical and Modern Physics
• 6. The Reinterpretation of Classical Physics
• 6.1. The Light Quantum Hypothesis
• 6.2. Brownian Motion
• 6.3. Special Relativity
• Notes
• 2 Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and the Problems in the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Basic Notions
• 2.1. Einstein’s Postulates
• 2.2. Relativity of Simultaneity
• 2.3. Kinematics of Special Relativity
• 3. Lorentz’s Theorem of Corresponding States
• 3.1. Failing to See the Ether Wind
• 3.2. A Challenging Problem in Electrodynamics
• 3.3. The Theorem
• 4. Einstein’s Path to Special Relativity
• 4.1. The Magnet and Conductor Thought Experiment
• 4.2. Field Transformations and the Relativity of Simultaneity
• 4.3. Einstein Considers an Emission Theory of Light
• 4.4. Return to Maxwell’s Theory
• 4.5. Stellar Aberration
• 5. E = mc2
• 5.1. The Result
• 5.2. A Demonstration
• 6. Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• 3 Einstein on Statistical Physics: Fluctuations and Atomism
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The First Two Papers: 1901–1902
• 3. The Year 1905
• 4. Foundations of Statistical Physics, 1902–1904
• 5. Critical Opalescence
• Notes
• 4 The Quantum Enigma
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Max Planck on Black-Body Radiation
• 3. Einstein’s Statistical Mechanics
• 4. The Revolution of 1905
• 5. Quantized Oscillators
• 6. Conversions to the Quantum
• 7. Waves and Corpuscles
• 8. Three Years of Skepticism
• 9. Back to the Quanta
• 10. Crucial Experiments
• 11. Quantum Degeneracy and Matter Waves
• 12. Conclusion: Einstein and Quantum Mechanics
• Notes
• 5 The Experimental Challenge of Light Quanta
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Photoelectric Effect and Beyond
• 3. Classical Theories of the Photoelectric Effect
• 4. Millikan’s Experiments and Theory
• 5. The Compton Effect
• 6. The Bohr-Kramers-Slater Theory
• Notes
• 6 “No Success Like Failure …”: Einstein’s Quest for General Relativity, 1907–1920
• 1. Introduction
• 2. First Attempt: The Equivalence Principle
• 3. Second Attempt: General Covariance
• 4. Third Attempt: A Machian Account of Newton’s Bucket
• 5. Fourth Attempt: Mach’s Principle and Cosmological Constant
• 6. PostMortem: How Einstein’s Physics Kept His Philosophy in Check
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• 7 Einstein’s Role in the Creation of Relativistic Cosmology
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Great Debate
• 3. Relativistic Cosmology
• 3.1. Paradoxes of Newtonian Cosmology
• 3.2. Mach’s Principle
• 4. Cosmological Models: A Versus B
• 4.1. The Many Faces of Model B
• 4.2. Singularities
• 4.3. Redshift
• 5. The Expanding Universe
• 6. Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• 8 Einstein, Gravitational Waves, and the Theoretician’s Regress
• 9 Einstein’s Unified Field Theory Program
• 1. The Conceptual Dimension
• 2. The Representational Dimension
• 3. The Biographical Dimension
• 4. The Philosophical Dimension
• Notes
• 10 Einstein’s Realism and His Critique of Quantum Mechanics
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Einstein’s Realism
• 3. Einstein’s Determinism
• 4. The Rise of Quantum Mechanics
• 5. The First Debates about Quantum Mechanics
• 6. The Entanglement Argument
• 7. Macroscopic Realism
• 8. Epilogue: Einstein’s Dream Shattered?
• 9. Why Einstein Did Not Like Quantum Mechanics
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• 11 Einstein and the Development of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Background and Early Influences
• 3. A New Empiricism as an Answer to the Neo-Kantians
• 4. Not a “Machian,” But Not a “Realist” Either
• 5. Conclusion
• Notes
• 12 “A Believing Rationalist”: Einstein and “the Truly Valuable” in Kant
• 1. Introduction
• 2. What Did “the Problem of Gravitation” Teach?
• 3. “The Truly Valuable” in Kant
• 4. Einstein’s Kant
• 5. Projecting the Order of Nature
• 6. Conclusion
• Notes
• 13 Space, Time, and Geometry
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Einstein, Schlick, and Poincaré
• 3. Einstein’s Introduction of Non-Euclidean Geometry and the Nineteenth-Century Tradition
• 4. Morals for Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Geometry: From Space to Space-Time
• Notes
• 14 Einstein’s Politics
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Background and Youth: Making a Virtue of Necessity
• 3. Crosscurrents of the Early Career
• 4. Convergence with the World: Distilling Political Positions out of Moral Concerns
• 5. Recovering Judaism: Einstein’s Version of Zionism
• 6. Achieving Social Justice: The Social Democratic Solution
• 7. The Flexible Pacifist
• 8. Einstein in America: The Nonpartisan Champion of the Underdog
• Notes
• Appendix: Special Relativity
• 1. The Relativity Postulate, the Light Postulate, and Their Strange Consequences
• 1.1. The Two Postulates of Special Relativity and the Tension between Them
• 1.2. The Relativity of Simultaneity
• 1.3. Time Dilation: The Rate of Moving Clocks and Other Processes in Systems in Motion
• 1.4. Length Contraction: The Length of Moving Rods and Other Objects in Motion
• 1.5. The Addition of Velocities
• 2. Special Relativity and Minkowski Space-Time
• 2.1. Minkowski or Space-Time Diagrams
• 2.2. Relativity of Simultaneity: Different Observers Carving Minkowski Space-Time into Different Sim
• 2.3. Tachyons, Causal Loops, and Causal Paradoxes
• 2.4. Time Dilation and Length Contraction: Different Observers Using Different Line Segments to Dete
• 2.5. Euclidean Geometry and the Geometry of Minkowski Space-Time
• 2.6. The Analogue of the Pythagorean Theorem in Minkowski Space-Time
• 2.7. The Twin Paradox
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index