Hans Reichenbach and the Theory of Relativity in France

Hans Reichenbach and the Theory of Relativity in France

Massimo Ferrari 

During the 1920s Hans Reichenbach devoted a great deal of his intellectual energy to the discussion of the theory of relativity. Reichenbach not only promoted an original interpretation, first outlined in his 1920 book Relativität und Erkenntnis A Prori, and further developed, in 1924, through the highly sophisticated attempt to axiomatize the theory of space-time, but he also vigorously defended Einstein’s theory against the attacks that on various fronts were directed at it,  in a context in which – in Germany, but not only in Germany – Einstein's theory was «omnipresent» even in public opinion (Wazek 2009, p. 85/transl. p. 66). A not insignificant part of this activity Reichenbach devoted to popularizing the theory of relativity through writings that were not strictly technical, but rather intended for readers unaware (or ill-informed) of what had profoundly changed in the traditional concepts of space, time, light, and gravitation. In this polemical activity Reichenbach distinguished himself by his expository skills, his conceptual precision, and his ability to translate the fundamental principles of contemporary physics into accessible language. For these reasons Reichenbach has been effectively called «the Einstein bulldog» (Gimbel-Walz 2006, pp. 9-10). Indeed, one need only to recall, in addition to the recent collection of articles published under the title Defending Einstein, the first volume of his Selected Writings (Reichenbach 1978, vol. 1, pp. 189-279), the 1927 small volume entitled Von Kopernikus zu Einstein. Der Wandel unseres Weltbildes or finally the text of the radio lectures collected in 1930 in Atom und Kosmos to get an idea of the extraordinary importance of this part of Reichenbach's philosophical work.