EINSTEIN’S QUESTION TO NEWTON AND KANT: SPACE AND TIME OR SPACE-TIME? Ephraim Stephen Essien Department of Classics and Philosophy University of Cape Coast Cape Coast, Ghana Abstract While indicating the distinctions between relativistic space-time and space and time conceptions in Newtonian physics and Kantian critical philosophy, this study also brings to the fore the antecedents Einstein might have had in Kantian philosophy, particularly on the concepts of space and time. Kant’s space and time entered into mainstream subjective idealism. Einstein rather situated space-time within a critical realism. There is space-time in relativity, while space and time remain Newtonian, Kantian. But these concepts date back to ancient philosophy. Space-time relativity currently shapes the modern world structure and a relativistic epistemology. His special and general theories of relativity were his detailed description of how bodies change their positions in space with time. Whereas special relativity described bodies in uniform motion, the general relativity was about non-uniform motion. Space is flat in special relativity and warped in general relativity theory. For Newton, space and time are absolutes; for Kant, space and time are a priori forms of intuition; while for Einstein, there is no space and time, but space- time, and so remains a property of matter. Introduction When Einstein was analyzing the concepts of space and time in terms of mechanics, he stressed that the purpose of mechanics was to describe how bodies change their positions in space with time. He then confessed he would load his conscience with grave sins against the sacred spirit of lucidity were he to formulate the aims of mechanics in that way, without serious reflection and detailed explanations (Einstein Relativity, 5). The relativity physics is his serious reflection and detailed explanation of how bodies change their positions in space with time. Space and time and the problems they pose are not only the concern of the physicist or the mathematician, but, fundamentally, of the philosopher. Unlike the physicist who grapples with space and time within the purview of mechanics, the philosopher considers space and time more in the light of the theory of knowledge and ontology. How do space and time structure our conception of the world? Are space and time properties of the object of our cognition, or are they mere receptivity or arena where things or events take place? Is the universe limited in time and finite in space, or is it an infinite and static universe? These questions, as philosophical as they are, only come as consequences of the works of physicists, mathematicians, astronomers and astrophysicists. One may, then, have to look at space and time within an inter-disciplinary matrix. But let us assume, here that exhausting such a task is beyond the scope of this work. Before we analyse how Kant and Einstein grappled with these concepts, we shall first cast a cursory over view on these concepts in ancient philosophy, mathematics and Newtonian physics. The problem of space and time in philosophy, mathematics and physics Any deep reflection on the notion of space and time must begin with the works of ancient philosophers, particularly, Democritus and Aristotle. Democritus of Abdera assumed that certain particles moved randomly in space, which he named atoms. These particles collided with one another to form bodies. This was physics in a state of naivety.