Contemporary American scientists and philosophers of science have built their views of the nature of science on a foundation of what became known as logical empiricism. While contemporary philosophy of science in the US has largely rejected much of this philosophy developed between the two world wars, logical empiricism still shapes how science is understood. Dr. Ryckman, under this grant, argues that an examination of the response of some of the founders of logical empiricism to a revolutionary scientific theory--Einstein's theory of general relativity--may encourage a clearer understanding of practices and methods of approach in contemporary philosophy of science and will also illuminate the problems surrounding the construction of philosophical interpretations of science. Dr. Ryckman is investigating the formation and subsequent influence of philosophical interpretations of the general theory of relativity that were fashioned in the period immediately following the theory's inception. In view of logical empiricism's preeminent role as a precursor of much of contemporary philosophy of science, the focus is on those interpretations of the theory's philosophical significance offered by philosophers who were to become its leading figures. This project requires both careful attention to scientific, historical and philosophical context and detailed knowledge of published and archival material. Under this grant, Dr. Ryckman is examining Han's Reichenbach's solution to the problem of the metric of space-time. This task involves an examination of correspondence and perhaps other unpublished materials in the Hermann Weyl papers. Second, he is studying the philosophical influence of Sir Arthur Eddington's work on general relativity and his attempted "generalization" which sought to bring the gravitational and the electromagnetic field into a common framework.
