The Special Theory of Relativity:Failure to Reveal the Dependence of Time and Space on Matter and its Motion

This article compares the special theory of relativity with Newton's mechanics and the general theory of relativity in light of the metric theory of time and space. It argues that the special theory of relativity has only revealed the connections between time and space but not the dependence of time and space on matter and its motion. Neither has it proved that the nature of time and space changes with the motion of matter. It is a breakthrough rather than a negation of the essential implications of Newton's absolute time-space theory. However, the general theory of relativity has totally broken with Newton's absolute time-space theory and is the real basis of natural sciences on which to build up the dialectical materialist theory of time and space. In the hope of correcting some mistakes, this article also analyzes certain representative views that are very popular in China's philosophical circle.