papalex on Nostr: I hope not to spam this thread, though felt this quote from [Adlam] (page 27) ...

I hope not to spam this thread, though felt this quote from [Adlam] (page 27) regarding the Poincare-Einstein debate is too insightfull not to share:

*"Poincare often refers to the network of conventions used in science as a framework; so for instance he claims that "space is another framework which we impose on the world." The fact that all his scientific work presupposes the existence and reality of space therefore reflects a deliberate choice to work within the traditional framework of science. Indeed, his commitment to retaining conventions whenever possible makes it clear that he does not see it as the place of the scientist to question this framework; as Stein observes, "the basic mathematical presuppositions of physics were seen by Poincare as defining a framework within which it is the task of the theoretical physicist to fit all phenomena." (unpublished). [...] He recognised that this explanatory framework is a freely chosen convention, but he believed that the role of science is to construct theories within this framework, not to investigate the nature of the framework itself."*

==> What this highlights:
Einstein did not merely introduce special relativity. He introduced a whole mindset for physics. The totality of Einsteins 1905 papers best reflect this revolutionary momentum in full. We can and should acknowledge Poincare (and Lorentz) for deriving the math of SR. But when we acknowledge Einsteins derivation of SR, I claim, in fact we talk about more than just the math -- we talk about the paradigm shift that Poincare rejected.