Einstein's Most Important Philosophical Error
Glenn Borchardt
A single philosophical error on Einstein's part has retarded physics and cosmology for over a century. The error is simply this: the objectification of motion. Classical mechanics assumed that the universe presents us with two fundamental phenomena: matter and the motion of matter. Matter exists; motion occurs. Matter, that is, anything in existence, has xyz dimensions and location. Motion is not ?part? of the universe; it is what those parts do. In objectifying motion, Einstein assumed instead that motion had material properties. It started out with his assumption that light was a particle instead of wave motion in a sea of particles. This was an objectification similar to the theory that heat was a "caloric fluid", instead of vibratory motion. This one error invalidates the Special and General Theories of Relativity. The attractiveness of those theories is dependent more upon the popularity of indeterministic, unscientific philosophy than upon the validity of the data offered in support. Examined in detail, the oft-cited "proofs" of relativity, such as the Eddington solar eclipse observations and the Hafele-Keating flight of clocks around Earth fail to prove anything. Their interpretation as supportive is an embarrassment to science.
