The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness as Revealed in Special Relativity

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Scientific Paper
Title The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness as Revealed in Special Relativity
Author(s) John E Chappell
Keywords Special Relativity
Published 1999
Journal None

Abstract

Exposing logical flaws in special relativity (SR) and its alleged supporting evidence usually involves finding circular reasoning or applying the law of noncontradiction. But also very useful is invoking the fallacy of misplaced concreteness (or "reification"), which occurs when properties of substantive things are attributed to non-substantive things or concepts. Example: a controlling influence over light velocity can logically be attributed only to something that can exert force, and this a coordinate system (CS), which is only an abstract set of points and lines, can not do; yet. in effect. the second postulate of SR claims that light velocity is fixed by the CS of the observer. Related arguments can firmly prove that space cannot curve and times cannot dilate. Such proofs cannot be refuted by any claim of experimental evidence to the contrary.

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