Skip to main content
Log in

Conventionality of Simultaneity: Malament’s Result Revisited

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Foundations of Physics Letters

Abstract

Some authors have given the impression that David Malament’s proof of the uniqueness of standard simultaneity in causal Minkowski spacetime also shows uniqueness in Minkowski spacetime proper. This paper has two aims. First, to show that this idea is actually false and, secondly, to present a result which proves that, under certain “natural” conditions, standard simultaneity is also unique in Minkowski spacetime.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. 1. J. Earman, World Enough and Space-Time (MIT Press, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  2. 2. M. Friedman, Foundations of Spacetime Theories (Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 164.

    Google Scholar 

  3. 3. J. Lucas and P. E., Hodgson, Spacetime and Electromagnetism: An Essay on the Special Theory of Relativity (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 90.

    Google Scholar 

  4. 4. D. Malament, “Causal theories of time and the conventionality of simultaneity,” Noûs 11, 293–300 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  5. 5. S. Pokorski, Gauge Field Theories (Cambridge University Press, 1987), Chap. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  6. 6. P. Spirtes, Conventionalism and the Philosophy of Henri Poincaré, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  7. 7. H. Stein, “On relativity theory and openness of the future,” Phil. Sci. 58, 147–167 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. 8. R. M. Wald, General Relativity (Chicago University Press, 1984), pp. 447–448.

    Google Scholar 

  9. 9. E. C. Zeeman, “Causality implies the Lorentz group,” J. Math. Phys. 5, 490–493 (1964).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Hogarth.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hogarth, M. Conventionality of Simultaneity: Malament’s Result Revisited. Found Phys Lett 18, 491–497 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10702-005-7539-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10702-005-7539-1

Key words:

Navigation