Marginalization processes in science: The controversy about the theory of relativity in the 1920s

Abstract

In the 1920s, hundreds of pamphlets were published whose authors self-confidently claimed to have refuted the theory of relativity. The opposition to relativity was extraordinarily fierce and lasted years, including not only physicists and philosophers but also scientific laymen. What were the motives of Einstein’s opponents? On what basis was the theory of relativity attacked so vociferously? This article focuses on the emergence of a heterogeneous international network of academic and nonacademic opponents to Einstein in the early 1920s and suggests a theoretical approach for understanding the nature of the controversy about the theory of relativity. I argue that the controversy about the theory of relativity represents a type of controversy that is unresolvable because of the ontological commitments underlying the arguments against academic consensus and the social dynamics of a process of marginalization of proponents of deviant knowledge.