The study forms a comprehensive history of the concept of simultaneity from earliest antiquity to the present, the first with such a historical sweep. In addition, Max Jammer has done an invaluable service in bringing together in an impressive manner material related to the extended controversies associated with the concept of simultaneity within 20th-century physics and philosophy of physics. -- Ronald Anderson, Boston College

Max Jammer's Concepts of Simultaneity presents a comprehensive, accessible account of the historical development of an important and controversial concept-which played a critical role in initiating modern theoretical physics-from the days of Egyptian hieroglyphs through to Einstein's work in 1905, and beyond. Beginning with the use of the concept of simultaneity in ancient Egypt and in the Bible, the study discusses its role in Greek and medieval philosophy as well as its significance in Newtonian physics and in the ideas of Leibniz, Kant, and other classical philosophers. The central theme of Jammer's presentation is a critical analysis of the use of this concept by philosophers of science, like Poincare, and its significant role in inaugurating modern theoretical physics in Einstein's special theory of relativity. Particular attention is paid to the philosophical problem of whether the notion of distant simultaneity presents a factual reality or only a hypothetical convention. The study concludes with an analysis of simultaneity's importance in general relativity and quantum mechanics.