Tomislav Petković

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theory of relativity and philosophyOn the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity by the Croatian Philosophical SocietyIntroductorythe theory of relativity and philosophy thematic section brings a selection of papers and articles presented at the 14th Days of Frane Petrić interna-tional and interdisciplinary symposium, held in the town of Cres between 25 and 28 September 2005 and organised by the Croatian philosophical Soci-ety. the aforesaid philosophical-scientific and cultural symposium – subtitled On	 the	Occasion	of	 the	100th	Anniversary	of	Einstein’s	Special	Theory	of	Relativity by the Croatian philosophical Society, and on the trail of the World Year of physics 2005 – was unique in the entire world since it followed the thread of the preceding traditional conferences in Cres, hometown of Frane Petrić, a renowned 16th century Croatian philosopher. The guiding thread of the symposium was modern and historical interdisciplinary reflection on the interrelations between the theory of relativity and philosophy, discussed by philosophers, physicists, philosophers of religion and theologians, artists and art theoreticians, historians of science, linguists, sociologists, engineers, medical workers, and first-class students from the University of Zagreb. On the trail and in the spirit of Einstein’s statement that “All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree” (Einstein, 1937). the 9 selected pa-pers that follow in the thematic section of this issue of Synthesis	Philosophica	represent the characteristic core that portrays the aforementioned character, insights and results of the symposium and its position in the development of modern philosophical currents in the world and Croatia. * * *Most papers can be brought together around the principal thematic axis of the symposium on the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s theory of relativity: the legacy of the Special theory of relativity and its modern philosophical and scientific conceptions. This issue brings 6 papers tackling Einstein’s	Legacy	in	Physics	and	the	Philosophy	of	Time	and	Space, as well as generalisations and/or thought experiments beyond the theory of relativity. the papers dis-cuss the postulates, both the physical and philosophical conceptions of the relativistic space-time in the Special	theory	of	relativity, its applications in the other branches of physics, and classical theories of space and time in the philosophy of nature (Einstein, poincaré, planck, Gödel, Casirrer, Euclid, Newton, Kepler, Petrić, ..., contemporary physicists and philosophers). Dur-SYNTHESIS	PHILOSOPHICA	42	(2/2006)	pp.	(191–193)Introductory192ing the course of the symposium, Petrić’s chief ontological concepts and his philosophical portrayal of the Solar universe from the late renaissance were linked with Einstein’s revolutions in physics and philosophy from 1905 and Einstein’s scientific image of the universe for the first time. the contemporary approach to Petrić’s phenomenological theory of the tides and its modern rel-ativistic conception are intriguing. We can, thus, claim that the 14th Days of Frane Petrić, as well as no. 42 (2/2006) of Synthesis	Philosophica, will enter chronology under the title Albert	Einstein	and	the	Days	of	Frane	Petrić. the latter title is one of the original titles from the Croatian symposium dedicated to Einstein’s jubilee year, much like “Albert Einstein – Chief Engineer of the Universe”, the title of the scientific exhibition within the 22nd International Conference on the History of Science in peking (ICHS, 24–30 July 2005).		During the preparations of this thematic section, Dr. Eugene E. ryan (27 November 1926, Chicago, Illinois – 18 January 2006, Greenville, North Carolina), a distinguished American philosopher and researcher of Greek, renaissance, Italian and, above all, Croatian philosophy, passed away. Ow-ing to his merits in Croatian and world Petrićology in general, and his merits for the results of the symposium in particular, his 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” has been selected as the opening article in no. 42 (2/2006) of Synthesis	Philosophica and the symposium’s Collected	Papers. the second most important axis of the thematic section, which, however, does not count as many papers as the first, reflects on Einstein’s views of God, religion and ethics impacting fundamentally the development of modern sci-entific research, the relations between religion and science, and everyday politics. the valuable paper we bring embraces an entire range of Einstein’s views – from his earliest days in Bern to his American phase in princeton – providing, for the first time, a coherent interpretation of Einstein’s thoughts on religion, God and morality. today, particularly around 2005, the year that marks the 100th jubilee of Einstein’s extraordinary discoveries made in 1905, interest in Einstein’s ethics has been growing. the famed Russell-Einstein	manifesto from 1955 was signed, besides Einstein and russell, by nine more scientists, seven of whom are Nobel prize laureates. thus, 2005 also marks half a century of the Manifest, a unique ethical reflection and warning of the total ruin of mankind in case of a possible nuclear war on Earth. 		the third thematic axis of selected papers pertains to the reception of Ein-stein’s theory of relativity in cultures of the world. It brings 2 extraordinarily valuable papers, which bring forth new discoveries about the unusual experi-ences in the reception (i.e. translation and publication) of Einstein’s works in China and Mexico.		* * *the theory of relativity and philosophy symposium was adorned by sine	ira	et	studio discussions, guided by Einstein’s manner of thinking and his scien-tific revolutions in physics, as well as by Einstein’s perception of the world and man’s role in it, and in full accord with Einstein’s famous claim that “the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… the fact that it is com-prehensible is a miracle” (Einstein, March 1936). The	Theory	of	Relativity	and	Philosophy symposium within the 14th Days of Frane Petrić, organised by the Croatian philosophical Society, judged Einstein’s year of 1905 unprec-SYNTHESIS	PHILOSOPHICA	42	(2/2006)	pp.	(191–193)Introductory193edented in the history of human knowledge and culture, as did the other great world conferences in 2005. In 1905 Einstein had an independent, obstinate, free and distant perception of time, space, particles of light, energy and mat-ter, which are today interpreted not only as conceptual revolutions in science, but also as the foundations of modern technologies and a scientific picture of the universe. It is certain that the Cres symposium – owing to the insights and papers pub-lished in this issue of Synthesis	Philosophica – places Croatia and Cres on the world map of those towns and countries that celebrated the 100th an-niversary of Einstein’s extraordinary and unrepeatable year in an impressive philosophical, scientific and cultural fashion. Tomislav PetkovićJoint Editor of “theory of relativity and philosophy”	

On the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity by the Croatian Philosophical Society

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