AN 'ABSTRUSE' DOCTRINE: THE HISTORICAL-PHILOSOPHICAL MEANING OF EINSTEIN'S RELATIVITY IN FEDERIGO ENRIQUES

Abstract

title ABSTRACT /title The aim of this article is to analyse the epistemological and historical interpretation that Federigo Enriques offered about Einstein's relativity. In the first part, we will point out the importance, in Enriques' thought, of the mathematical and philosophical concept of space in order to consider relativity as a link between physics and geometry. We will show how Einstein's theory constituted, for Enriques, the proof of the same empirical nature of geometry and physics. The second part is dedicated to the historical roots of relativity. Enriques identified in Parmenides' philosophy, and in its movement's existence denial, the first formulation of the relativity concept. At the end we will show how epistemological and historical points of view on relativity are complementary in Enriques' analysis, and allow a reciprocal comprehension.