What's Wrong with Classical Mechanics and Special Relativity?
Section Twenty-One
Einstein claims that something is missing in classical mechanics and his own special relativity. They postulate a privileged frame, i.e., the inertial frame. But if it is privileged, there must be some real difference between other frames and itself; otherwise, there should be no privileged frame. Since Einstein can find no real basis for the privilege of the inertial frame, he regards these theories as unsatisfactory. And, he thinks that physics with the general principle of relativity can satisfy this requirement.
Notice that Einstein's argument is remiscent of Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason: if two things are really different, there must be a sufficient reason for that (see Leibniz-Clarke Corr.).
Last modified, May 7, 2002. (c) Soshichi Uchii
suchii@bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp
