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Vol. XVI, No. 3
49
physics. 19
“The great advance in our knowledge described in this chapter consists in recognisiag that the scene of action of reality is not a three-dimensional Euclidean Space but rather a four-dimensional world, in which space and time are linked together indiscolubly. However deep the chasm may be that separates the intuitive nature of space from that of time in our experience, nothing of this qualitative difference enters into the objective world which physics endeavours to crystalise out of direct experience. It is a four-dimensional continuum, which is neither "time" nor "space".20 Thus, these scientists conceive space as a mere frame of reference, whose existence is just as real and just as unreal, as that of the equator, or the north pole, or the meridian of Greenwich. Reichenbach's Interpretation
Some other scientists have interpreted the theory of relativity in a different way. Though they do not differ in the interpretation of physical aspect of the four-dimensional continuum of space and time, they do not accept the view that space and time exist only subjectively. Hans Reichenbach, who, in his critical work 'The Philosophy of Space and Time'-has discussed both the philosophical and physical aspects of the theory of relativity, stands prominent amongst these scientists.
First of all, Reichenbach distinguishes between the mathematical space and physical space. He explains the distinction thus : “Mathematics shows a variety of possible forms of relations among which physics selects the real one by means of observations and experime Mathematics, for instance, teaches how the planets would move if the force of attraction of the sun should decrease with the second or third power of the distance; physics decides that the second power the real world........ Mathematics reveals the possible space; physics decides which among them corresponds to physical space. rast to all earlier conceptions, in particular to the philosophy of Kant. it becomes now a task of physics to determine the geometry of physical space, just as physics determines the shape of the earth or the motions of the planets, by means of observations and experiments."21 Thus, Reichenbach has clearly accepted the objective existence of physical space.
Further, refuting the view of conventionalists (such as Poincare) who contended that it depended wholly upon our convention which structure is attributed to space, Reichenbach states: "From conventionalism the consequence was derived that it is impossible to make an objective statement about the geometry of physical space, and
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