Hans Reichenbach's relativity of geometry

Andreas Kamlah

pp. 251-265

in: Wesley C. Salmon (ed), Hans Reichenbach, Berlin, Springer, 1979

Abstract

Hans Reichenbach's 1928 thesis of the relativity of geometry has been misunderstood as the statement that the geometrical structure of space can be described in different languages. In this interpretation the thesis becomes an instance of "trivial semantical conventionalism", as Grünbaum calls it. To understand Reichenbach correctly, we have to interpret it in the light of the linguistic turn, the transition from "thought oriented philosophy" to "language oriented philosophy", which mainly took place in the first decades of our century. Reichenbach as Poincare before him is undermining the prejudice of thought oriented philosophy, that two propositions have different factual content, if they are associated with different ideas in our mind. Thus Reichenbach prepared the change to language oriented philosophy, which he also accepted later.

Cited authors

Reichenbach Hans