On the Geometric Meaning of General Relativity and the Foundations of Newtonian Cosmology

The geometric foundations of General Relativity are revisited here, with particular attention to its gauge invariance, as a key to understanding the true nature of spacetime. Beyond the common image of spacetime as a deformable “fabric” filling the Universe, curvature is interpreted as the dynamic interplay between matter and interacting fields, a view already emphasized by Einstein and Weyl but sometimes overlooked in the literature. Building on these tools, a Newtonian framework is reconstructed that captures essential aspects of cosmology, showing how classical intuition can coexist with modern geometric insights. This perspective shifts the focus from substance to relationships, offering a fresh magnifying glass through which to reinterpret gravitational dynamics and the large-scale structure of the Universe. The similarities of this approach with other recent, more ambitious ones carried out at the quantum level are quite remarkable.