Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar
Another eminent philosopher-scientist Prof. Margenau calls absolute space a possible 'construct', which is his term for 'reality'. He writes: "The advocate of absolute space bases his attitude on the simple fact that he can intuit three-dimensional space even when it is vacant of objects. This kind of space is a possible construct, and it is absolute within the frame-work of the initial question."[1]
Further, Prof. Margenau has explained that this kind of absolute space is not adopted by the scientist only because it is not useful to them. But it does not mean that the absolute space has ceased to exist.
The 'ākāśa' of the Jain metaphysics is also an absolute space, and this theory of 'ākāśa' cannot be refuted on the basis of the theory of relativity; yet we have to accept that in the empirical science, such passive space is of no use, and hence, the physicists may not take account of its reality, as stated by Russell. Thus, we may conclude that absolute space is essential in the logical field, it is not so in the field of empirical science. It should be remarked here that the scientists are not able to solve some other aspects of the enigma of the universe probably on account of their abandoning the concept of the absolute space.
