On Kinematic versus Dynamic Approaches to Special Relativity

Abstract

Janssen argues that special relativity is preferable to Lorentzian dynamics due to its kinematic structure. Brown, along with others, raises an objection, arguing that a dynamical understanding of special relativity is explanatorily prior and hence more fundamental than the principle theory-based kinematic structure of Minkowski space-time. This article challenges this objection, arguing that both Janssen and Brown miss the essential aspect of the principles of special relativity that underwrite its interpretational success. It is not its kinematic structure but the constitutive nature of the principles it employs, by providing a coherent conceptual framework, that does the foundational work.