All Topics  
Relational theory

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Relational theory
 
 
  Topics Relational theory Topic Home

…:This article is about relational theory in physics and philosophy. There is a separate article about the relational model
Relational model

The relational model for database management is a database model based on first-order logic, first formulated and proposed in 1969 by Edgar F. Codd....
 (database) and Relational Philosophy as a category of Philosophical anthropology
Philosophical anthropology

Philosophical anthropology is the attempt to unify disparate ways of understanding behaviour of humans as both creatures of their social environments and creators of their own Value s....


In physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 and philosophy
Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, a relational theory is a framework to understand reality or a physical system in such a way that the position and other properties of the objects are only meaningful relative to other objects. In a relational theory, space does not exist unless there are objects in it. The relational view proposes that space is contained in objects and that an object represents within it self relationships to other objects.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Relational theory'
Start a new discussion about 'Relational theory'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


…:This article is about relational theory in physics and philosophy. There is a separate article about the relational model
Relational model

The relational model for database management is a database model based on first-order logic, first formulated and proposed in 1969 by Edgar F. Codd....
 (database) and Relational Philosophy as a category of Philosophical anthropology
Philosophical anthropology

Philosophical anthropology is the attempt to unify disparate ways of understanding behaviour of humans as both creatures of their social environments and creators of their own Value s....


In physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 and philosophy
Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, a relational theory is a framework to understand reality or a physical system in such a way that the position and other properties of the objects are only meaningful relative to other objects. In a relational theory, space does not exist unless there are objects in it. The relational view proposes that space is contained in objects and that an object represents within it self relationships to other objects. Space can be defined through the relations among the objects that it contains considering their variations through time. The alternative is an absolute theory
Absolute theory

In physics and philosophy, absolute theory usually refers to a theory based on concepts that exist independently of other concepts and objects. An absolute theory is the opposite of a relational theory....
 in which the space exists independently of any objects that can be immersed in it.

The relational point of view was advocated by Gottfried von Leibniz, Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach

Ernst Mach was an Austrians physicist and philosopher and is the namesake for the Mach number and the optical illusion known as Mach bands....
 (in his Mach's principle
Mach's principle

In theoretical physics, particularly in discussions of :Category:Theories of gravitation, Mach's principle is the name given by Albert Einstein to a vague hypothesis first supported by the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach....
), and it was rejected by Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people physicist, mathematician, Astronomy, Natural philosophy, Alchemy, and Theology and one of the the 100 in human history....
 in his successful description of classical physics
Classical physics

Classical physics is a general term used to describe the branches of physics based on principles developed before the rise of general theory of relativity and Quantum mechanics, usually including special theory of relativity....
. Although Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2....
 was impressed by Mach's principle, he did not fully incorporate it into his theory of general relativity. Several attempts have been made to formulate a full Machian theory, but most physicists think that none have so far succeeded. For example, see Brans-Dicke theory
Brans-Dicke theory

In theoretical physics, the Brans-Dicke theory of gravitation is a theoretical framework to explain gravitation. It is a well-known competitor of Albert Einstein's more popular theory of general relativity....
.

A developing theory of gravity, loop quantum gravity
Loop quantum gravity

Loop quantum gravity , also known as loop gravity and quantum geometry, is a proposed quantum theory of spacetime which attempts to reconcile the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity....
, is revisiting the relational view.