Einstein’s theory of relativity is among the most astonishing achievements of the XXth century, for it radically transforms the comprehension of concepts taken as correct. But one important point is usually neglected: time, for Einstein, is a physical notion. In that sense, Einstein is a modern thinker, if "modern" is to be understood as the use of the characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself. In its modernity, also seen as a thought built on hypothesis subject to criticism, Einstein’s physics finds a common ground with other modern fields of knowledge.
Einstein; theory of relativity; time; physics; modernity