Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 21 No. 2, 2006.
Original scientific paper
Reflections on Light and Time in the Philosophy of Franciscus Patricius and in the 1905 Paper of Albert Einstein “The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”
Eugene E. Ryan
Abstract
The philosopher Frane Petriċ (Franciscus Patricius, Francesco Patrizi 1529–1597), particularly in his major works, Discussiones peripateticae and Nova de universis philosophia, devoted a significant part of his studies in ontology and cosmology to a highly original study of light and of time, two of the same concepts that play such an important part in Einstein’s paper of 1905, “The electrodynamics of moving bodies”. By juxtaposing these concepts in the two thinkers, it becomes clear that there is an affinity between the concepts in each of the thinker’s systems. For Patricius, as for Einstein, light has a unique, unchanging function in the universe. And in his analysis of time and related concepts such as duration, Patricius developed a conceptual structure dynamic enough to find consistency with Einstein’s analysis of time and of simultaneity.
Keywords
electrodynamics of moving bodies; light; time; simultaneity; principles of Special Relativity; absolutes; Franciscus Patricius; Albert Einstein
Hrčak ID:
12415
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2006.
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