Einstein: the creation of the theory of relativity and some gnosiological lessons

Some characteristic methods that Einstein used to analyze the problems of the electrodynamics of moving bodies are discussed. Einstein rejected the method of “accumulation of hypotheses”, reevaluated the results of electrodynamic experiments, generalized them in the form of the relativity principle, interpreted this as a law of nature, and, significantly, made it the point of departure of a new theory–the special theory of relativity. It is shown that Einstein gave great importance to generalizing the results of experiments and the part played by theory, in which nature is regarded as an integral whole; for Einstein, all the variable parameters used in a theory are interconnected and interdependent; this also applies to space and time, which lose their substantiality and, thus, absoluteness. It is pointed out that it was only the realization that the metric expresses the laws of physical interconnection that made possible the formulation of the general theory of relativity. Einstein's negative position with respect to the conventionalism of Poincare and Reichenbach, in particular the interpretation of geometry as a conventionally chosen method of describing experience independent of physical interconnections, is discussed. In connection with the criticism of conventionalism, consideration is given to descriptions of one and the same experiment that have different forms, and it is shown that some of these descriptions merely represent formal transformations that do not reveal new connections in nature whereas others give the same results only at a definite stage of understanding, their subsequent development however revealing that they correspond to different levels of penetration into the essence of the phenomena.