The relativity revolution has left in its wake a topsy-turvy world of immense power and immense insecurity, and a sense of both progress and perplexity. We have learned the most profound secrets about space and time, only to be confronted by renewed mystery. Is matter a form of motion? Do the past and future exist now? Is there change? Why is the speed of light constant? Does the very length of a body depend on how it is measured? Do the past and future exist now? Is time travel possible?

From the eclipse expedition in 1919 through to today, this revolution has sent philosophers scurrying backwards to deepen our understanding of the nature of space and time. They have returned to the earliest debates of about 500BCE in ancient Greece and the great feuds over the new discoveries made during the scientific revolution in the 1600s. This research has substantially advanced our understanding of the origins of key concepts, and of the interpretation of Einstein's theories.

The following chapters pursue three key themes:

1. • Paradox as a source of innovation

2. Long before experiments were conducted, key concepts emerged as solutions to philosophical problems.

3. • The metaphysics of space

4. Do space or spacetime exist in their own right, as a kind of container, over and above bodies?

5. • The rise of the relational worldview

6. Natural science has shifted the way philosophers think about relations, the glue that holds the cosmos together.