9310561 Rynasiewicz Recent work in the philosophy of space and time has increasingly focused on the comparison of physical theories in coordinate-free formulations. Such formulations have been given for a variety of non-relativistic theories as well as for the usual array of relativistic theories. Nonetheless, certain doubts have been expressed that there is a consistent coordinate-free formulation of non-relativistic electrodynamics in which absolute space plays a coherent and indispensable role. The absence of such a formulation is a significant lacuna since, historically, electrodynamics precipitated the transition to relativity physics. Dr. Rynasiewicz' goal in this research is to fill this lacuna by providing a coordinate-free formulation of the Maxwell-Lorentz theory in Newtonian spacetime. In doing this, he will provide researchers with a new vantage point from which to address a number of issues in the history and philosophy of physics. One of these is a rigorous assessment of the similarities and differences between the theoretical strategies of Einstein and his predecessors and contemporaries with respect to the optics and electrodynamics of moving bodies. Another is the significance of the absolute- relational controversy concerning the nature of space and time in this critical episode in the history of physics. These results are of interest to philosophers, historians and physicists alike. ***
