The
Speed
of
LighT
Co n S Ta n C y + Co S m o S
d av i d a . g r a n d y
The
Speed
of
LighT
India na Universit y Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
The
Speed
of
LighT
Co n S Ta n C y + Co S m o S
d av i d a . g r a n d y
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail
[email protected] © 2009 by David A. Grandy All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grandy, David. The speed of light : constancy and cosmos / David A. Grandy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-35322-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-22086-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Light—Speed. 2. Space and time. 3. Time—Philosophy. I. Title. QC407.G73 2009 535—dc22 2008043194 1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
To my parents, Grant and Barbara Grandy
For as the eyes of bats are to the light of day, so is the intellect of our soul to the objects which in their nature are most evident of all.
A ristotle
Co nTenTS ack nowledgments Introduction
xi
1
1 Space, Time, a nd Light Speed Constancy 2 Specia l Rel ativit y 3 Horizona l Light
24 36
4 Experientia l Light 5 Rel ationa l Light
48 60
6 Interna l Relations 7 Light in a Vacuum 8 Ambient Light
70 86
96
9 Pre-reflective Experience 10 Body, World, a nd Light 11 Existentia l Light Notes
166
Bibliogr aph y Index
190
182
146
128
114
10
aCk n owLed gmenTS
Every author grows blind to the manuscript he or she writes, and so fresh eyes are always welcome. I thank an anonymous reviewer at Indiana University Press for meticulously correcting errors and proposing new directions and emphases. I similarly thank Sienna Dittmer, Ace Sorensen, Chad McKell, and Marc-Charles Ingerson for reading the text, identifying weaknesses, producing illustrations, and patiently listening to my ideas. I am also appreciative of the faculty seminars I’ve participated in at Brigham Young University. Directed and taught by Travis Anderson, James Faulconer, and Mark Wrathall, these weekly gatherings sparked my interest in phenomenology and allowed me to think more broadly about puzzling issues in science. I also wish to thank, or perhaps apologize to, students in a recent undergraduate philosophy course who were assigned to work their way through Alfred North Whitehead’s Science and the Modern World. I say “apologize to” because Whitehead is not easy to read, but the endeavor stretched me in new ways, as I hope it did my students as well. In this regard let me thank David Paulsen, whose invitation to write a scholarly article on process thought led me deeper into Whitehead’s contribution to modern philosophy. Among the editorial staff at Indiana University Press I express thanks to Rober