Einstein, Kant, and the Relativized A Priori

Abstract

I argue that Einstein's creation of both special and general relativity instantiates Reichenbach's conception of the relativized a priori. I do this by show-ing how the original Kantian conception actually contributes to the development of Einstein's theories through the intervening philosophical and scientific work of Helmholtz, Mach, and Poincaré. Kant's original version of transcendental philosophy took both Euclidean geometry and the Newtonian laws of motion to be synthetic a priori constitutive principles – which, from Kant's point of view, function as necessary presuppositions for applying our fundamental concepts of space, time, matter, and motion to our sensible experience of the natural world.