On Physics: On Simultaneity IX

"By means of a revision of the concept of simultaneity in a shapable form I arrived at the special relativity theory.” (Albert Einstein, 1924)

"[...] even in a temporal description of nature given by a relational theory of time. However, a theory, like the special theory of relativity, that denies the existence of an infinitely fast causal chain, deprives the concept of absolute simultaneity of its physical meaning even within a single inertial system. [...]  But since the metrical concept of velocity presupposes that we know the meaning of a transit time and since such a time, in turn, depends on a prior criterion of clock synchronization or simultaneity, we must first formulate the limiting property of electromagnetic chains [the fastest causal chain] without using the concept of simultaneity of noncoincident events." (Adolf Grünbaum, "Logical and philosophical foundations of the special theory of relativity", American Journal of Physics 23, 1955)

"The ‘relativity’ of the new theory - one of the most solidly verified theories in the entire range of physics - is chiefly, therefore, a relativity of simultaneity." (Ernan McMullin, "Simultaneity", 1967)

"By far the most important consequence of the conceptual revolution brought about in physics by relativity and quantum theory lies not in such details as that meter sticks shorten when they move or that simultaneous position and momentum have no meaning, but in the insight that we had not been using our minds properly and that it is important to find out how to do so." (Percy W Bridgman, "Quo Vadis",[in Gerald Holton (ed.), "Science and the Modern Mind"] 1971)

"According to the special theory there is a finite limit to the speed of causal chains, whereas classical causality allowed arbitrarily fast signals. Foundational studies […] soon revealed that this departure from classical causality in the special theory is intimately related to its most dramatic consequences: the relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, and length contraction. By now it had become clear that these kinematical effects are best seen as consequences of Minkowski space-time, which in turn incorporates a nonclassical theory of causal structure. However, it has not widely been recognized that the converse of this proposition is also true: the causal structure of Minkowski space-time contains within itself the entire geometry (topological and metrical structure) of Minkowski space-time." (John A. Winnie," The Causal Theory of Space-Time", 1977)

"It is hard to overestimate the impact of Einstein’s definition of distant simultaneity on philosophy in this century, set, as the words were, in the context of a highly successful theory of physics." (Graham Nerlich, 1982)