Tra scienza e filosofia : alcune considerazioni sullo statuto epistemologico del postulato di covarianza generale

As with any scientific revolution, Einstein's theory of relativity and particularly his theory of general relativity entailed a profound revision of our fundamental epistemological concepts. Eminently problematic appeared Einstein's formulation of the principle of general covariance, whose epistemological quality was subjected to a severe judgment by the mathematician Erich Kretschmann, who called into question the physical nature of the principle. The Author singles out in Ernst Cassirer's solution proposal the most convincing approach to the problem. [Publisher's text]