Tulsi Prajna 1990 12

SR No.: 524564
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mangal Prakash Mehta
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1990
Total Pages: 76
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 5 MB

Page 55

Vol. XVI, No. 3
He, further states: "We may, therefore, retain the perceptual difference between space and time without fear of contradicting the mathematical representation....The properties of time which the theory of relativity has discovered have nothing to do with its treatment as fourth dimension". 26
$1
Reichenbach is of the view that the statement of Minkowski that "from now on the ideas of space and time as independent concepts shall disappear and only a union of the two shall be retained as an independent concept", has unfortunately caused the erroneous impression that all visualizations of time as time and of space as space must disappear.27
Reichenbach has also pondered over the number of dimensions of space. Some scientists and mathematicians have conceived of space consisting of n dimensions where n may be greater than 3. But, Reichenbach has believed that objectively space can have only three dimensions. He states: "The number 3 of dimensions represents primarily a fact concerning the objective world.... We consider the parameter space merely by a mathematical tool with no objective reference, whereas we regard the three-dimensional space as the real space.28 Again, he positively asserts. "The statement that physical space has three dimensions has, therefore, the same objective character as, for instance, the statement that there are three physical states of matter, the solid, liquid, and gaseous state; it describes a fundamental fact of the objective world.",29
Thus, although Reichenbach has accepted the theory of relativity, he has maintained that the absolute space and time have objective existence. In the concluding chapter of his work on space and time, he observes: "We may, therefore, regard the following statement as the most general assertion about space-time order: everywhere and at all times there exists a space-time coordinate system.
"This result implies the topological distinguish ability of space and time. In a space-time coordinate system one of the dimensions is to be considered as time and the three others as space" 30
Further, after having discussed the difference between subjectivity and objectivity, and their relation with space and time, in conclusion Reichenbach states: "The fact that an orering of all events is possible within the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time is the most fundamental aspect of the physical theory of space and time.
"The most important result of these considerations is the objectivity of the properties of spacc. The reality of space and time turns out to be the irrefutable consequence of our epistemological analyses,