A Philosophical Inquiry into the Possibility or Impossibility of Transcending the Speed of Light


POLATOĞLU A.

BEYTULHIKME-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, cilt.16, ss.65-82, 2026 (ESCI, TRDizin) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 16
  • Basım Tarihi: 2026
  • Doi Numarası: 10.29228/beytulhikme.81897
  • Dergi Adı: BEYTULHIKME-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), Index Islamicus, Philosopher's Index, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.65-82
  • Atatürk Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

In this study, starting from the nature of light, the scientific and philosophical meaning dimensions of the speed of light and time are discussed. The metaphysical and experimental foundations of light theories from Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages are analyzed. Then, with Einstein's Special Relativity, the universal constancy of the speed of light and how this constancy reconstructs the concepts of space, time and causality through Lorentz transformations are revealed. Speculative superluminal (faster-than-light) models such as tachyons, warp drive and wormholes are evaluated within the framework of both theoretical boundary-crossing attempts and philosophical discussions on causal violations. Through the examples of quantum entanglement and cosmic inflation, flexible interpretations of the absoluteness status of the speed of light in the universe are presented, while time-speed images in the Qur'an and other religious texts are examinedwith a critical look at the anachronistic interpretations established by modern physics. This borderland, where physical reality and ontological and epistemological questions intersect, points to an in-depth philosophical reading of both the possibilities and limitations of human thought.