iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
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The reception of the theory of relativity in the French philosophical amid: a reading based on Bergson, Meyerson and Bachelard
José Ernane Carneiro Carvalho Filho | Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB) e Faculdade Anísio Teixeira (FAT), Brazil

The diffusion of the Theory of Relativity in France began with the conference held by the physicist Paul Langevin during the International Congress of Philosophy in Bologne and in the French Society of Philosophy. Due to these two conferences, the Theory of Relativity became a philosophical theme. It is in this context that the works of Henri Bergson emerged, Durée et simultaneité, Émile Meyerson, La deduction relativiste, e Gaston Bachelard, La valour inductive de La relativité. This works produced in the decade of 1920, implied in several interpretations of Einstein’s theory. Bergson for example affirms that the several times stated by the Relativity are mathematical, that means, not real, because the only existing temporal reality is the one which is noticeable by a conscience able to embrace the before and the after, the duration. The Bergsonian duration is unique because once it is restrict to the conscience of the living and these ones have similar structures, it is possible to think that the duration is always unique. Meyerson on the other hand defends the relativistic statements, but he emphasizes that the principles of the Relativity is a continuation of the special explanation of Descartes. In its deductive face Meyerson affirms that the Relativity is related to the Hegelianism and to the cartesianism for aiming to establish a deductive global system, although he recognizes the differences on the ways followed by Einstein and Hegel. Bachelard on the other hand, uses the theory of Einstein to reformulate his temporal conception, breaking with the bergsonian duration to state that the only temporal reality is the instant in a determined point of the space-time. It also uses the Relativity to demonstrate that the realism of Meyerson doesn’t have its bases on the context of this new theory. Bachelard aims to demonstrate that the Theory of Relativity besides having a deductive character explained by Meyerson, it also has a inductive feature when it makes possible the creation of new phenomena from its principles. This way, the theory of Einstein provided an intense philosophical debate in the decade of 1920, in France, where each philosopher resorted to the Relativity to emphasize its philosophical statements, as in the case of Meyerson, and to combat it, in Bergson’s. Y Bachelard on the other hand, will use the new theory to construct a conception of science that broke realism as much as with the Bergsonian duration.