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IN WHAT RESPECTS ARE THE FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS AND OF THE
SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY UNSATISFACTORY?
We have already stated several times that classical mechanics starts
out from the following law: Material particles sufficiently far
removed from other material particles continue to move uniformly in a
straight line or continue in a state of rest. We have also repeatedly
emphasised that this fundamental law can only be valid for bodies of
reference K which possess certain unique states of motion, and which
are in uniform translational motion relative to each other. Relative
to other reference-bodies K the law is not valid. Both in classical
mechanics and in the special theory of relativity we therefore
differentiate between reference-bodies K relative to which the
recognised " laws of nature " can be said to hold, and
reference-bodies K relative to which these laws do not hold.
But no person whose mode of thought is logical can rest satisfied with
this condition of things. He asks : " How does it come that certain
reference-bodies (or their states of motion) are given priority over
other reference-bodies (or their states of motion) ? What is the
reason for this Preference? In order to show clearly what I mean by
this question, I shall make use of a comparison.
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