David B. Malament
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David B. Malament is an American philosopher of science.
He received a B.A. in mathematics 1968 at Columbia College and Ph.D. in philosophy 1975 at Rockefeller University. After holding different positions at the University of Chicago he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California, Irvine.
Malament's work is centered about the conceptual foundations of Special and General Theory of Relativity.
In the question whether simultaneity in STR, the Einstein synchronisation, is conventional, Malament argues against conventionalism and holds to have refuted Adolf Grünbaum's argument for conventionalism[1]. Grünbaum[2], as well as Sahotra Sarkar and John Stachel[3], don't agree, whereas Robert Rynasiewicz sides with Malament[4]. As of 2006 there is on ongoing debate about the Malament's argument in philosophical journals[5].
During the early 1970's Malament served a sentence in the Danbury Connecticut federal prison for refusing induction into the military, as he opposed the war in Vietnam. This experience lead in part to his article, "Selective Consiencious Objection and the Gillette Decision", an early article in the influential philosophy journal, Philosophy and Public Affairs.
[edit] References
- ^ D. Malament, 1977. "Causal Theories of Time and the Conventionality of Simultaniety," Noûs 11, 293-300
- ^ A. Grünbaum. David Malament and the Conventionality of Simultaneity: A Reply, online
- ^ S. Sarkar, J. Stachel, Did Malament Prove the Non-Conventionality of Simultaneity in the Special Theory of Relativity?, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 66, No. 2
- ^ R. Rynasiewicz, Definition, Convention, and Simultaneity: Malament's Result and Its Alleged Refutation by Sarkar and Stachel, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 68, No. 3, Supplement, online
- ^ E.g. see: Hanoch Ben-Yami, Causality and Temporal Order in Special Relativity, British Jnl. for the Philosophy of Sci., Volume 57, Number 3, Pp. 459-479, abstract online
