Principle of Relativity (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) »

The youngest of four children of an Anglican vicar, Whitehead (1861-1947) -- one of the most interesting and imaginative scholars of our era -- showed no sign of the genius that he was later in life. As a scholar, his academic interests spanned mathematics, science, and metaphysics, all of which were thoroughly and carefully treated by him with a unique style. His academic career was wide ranging as well. In 1910 he relocated to London where he was a professor and Dean at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. In 1924 he left England for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a professor of philosophy at Harvard until his retirement in 1937, and Bertrand Russell was one of his students.

Interweaving science and metaphysics, The Principle of Relativity presents what is commonly acknowledged as the most interesting alternative to Einstein's general theory of relativity. The great mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead furthermore spells out his view of geometry, space-time, and Nature in this intriguing book. Originally published in 1922, the book offers a different paradigm from Einstein's, elegant and simple in its mathematical formulation with its own philosophical background and agenda. Few other books exemplify as it does the intricate inter-relations between physics and philosophy. Scholars from both domains shall find here much to chew on, as well as the layman who is interested in the history of ideas of the twentieth century.