ABSTRACT Relativity was Einstein’s main research programme and scientific project. It was an open-ended programme that developed throughout Einstein’s scientific career, giving rise to special relativity (SR), general relativity (GR), and unified field theory. In this article, we want to uncover the methodological logic of the Einsteinian programme, which animated the whole programme and its development, and as it was revealed in SR, GR, and unified field theory. We aver that the same methodological logic animated all these theories as Einstein’s work progressed. Each of these theories contributed towards constructing Einstein’s ambitious programme. This article is not a contribution to the history of relativity, but, rather, it utilises our knowledge of this history to uncover the methodological logic of the relativity programme and its development. This logic is latent in the historical narrative but is not identical to it. We hope to show that the Einsteinian relativity project is still relevant today as a theoretical scheme, despite its failures and despite quantum mechanics.

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爱因斯坦相对论的原因和方法

摘要相对论是爱因斯坦的主要研究计划和科学计划。这是一个开放式计划，在爱因斯坦的整个科学生涯中得到发展，并产生了狭义相对论（SR），广义相对论（GR）和统一场论。在本文中，我们想揭示爱因斯坦程序的方法论逻辑，该逻辑使整个程序及其发展充满生气，并且在SR，GR和统一领域理论中得到了揭示。我们平均认为，随着爱因斯坦工作的进行，所有这些理论都采用了相同的方法论逻辑。这些理论中的每一个都为构建爱因斯坦的宏伟计划做出了贡献。本文不是对相对论的贡献，而是 它利用我们对这段历史的了解来揭示相对论程序及其发展的方法论逻辑。这种逻辑在历史叙事中是潜在的，但并不相同。我们希望表明，爱因斯坦相对论计划尽管有其失败之处，也尽管有量子力学，但作为理论方案在今天仍然有用。