Victorian Relativity - Radical Thought and Scientific Discovery

One of the articles of faith of twentieth-century intellectual history is that the theory of relativity in physics sprang from the unaided genius of Albert Einstein in 1905; another is that scientific relativity has no significant connection with ethical, cultural, or epistemological relativism. "Victorian Relativity" challenges these truisms, unearthing a forgotten tradition of avant-garde speculation that took as its guiding principle "the negation of the absolute" and set itself under the banner of "relativity." Christopher Herbert shows that the principle that nothing exists but relations formed the basis of nineteenth-century speculation across a wide range of fields; he argues that this defining idea of intellectual modernism was linked from the moment of its emergence to political and cultural radicalism.

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Summary

This text challenges the assumptions that the theory of relativity in physics sprang in its essence from the genius of Albert Einstein, and that scientific relativity is unconnected to ethical, cultural or epistemological relativisms.

Product details

• Authors: Christopher Herbert
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.06.2001
• EAN: 9780226327334
• ISBN: 978-0-226-32733-4
• No. of pages: 264
• Dimensions: 16 mm x 23 mm x 2 mm
• Weight: 482 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general)