Riemann's and Helmholtz-Lie's problems of space from Weyl's relativistic perspective

Abstract

I reconstruct Riemann's and Helmholtz-Lie's problems of space, from some perspectives that allow for a fruitful comparison with Weyl.In Part II. of his inaugural lecture, Riemann justifies that the infinitesimal metric is the square root of a quadratic form. Thanks to Finsler geometry, I clarify both the implicit and explicit hypotheses used for this justification. I explain that Riemann-Finsler's kind of method is also appropriate to deal with indefinite metrics. Nevertheless, Weyl shares with Helmholtz a strong commitment to the idea that the notion of group should be at the center of the foundations of geometry. Riemann missed this point, and that is why, according to Weyl, he dealt with the problem of space in a “too formal” way. As a consequence, to solve the problem of space, Weyl abandoned Riemann-Finsler's methods for group-theoretical ones.However, from a philosophical point of view, I show that Weyl and Helmholtz are in strong opposition. The meditation on Riemann's inaugural lecture, and its clear methodological separation between the infinitesimal and the finite parts of the problem of space, must have been crucial for Weyl, while searching for strong epistemological foundations for the group-theoretical methods, avoiding Helmholtz's unjustified transition from the finite to the infinitesimal.