  This paper, which is meant to be a tribute to Minkowski's geometrical
insight, rests on the idea that the basic observed symmetries of spacetime
homogeneity and of isotropy of space, which are displayed by the spacetime
manifold in the limiting situation in which the effects of gravity can be
neglected, leads to a formulation of special relativity based on the appearance
of two universal constants: a limiting speed $c$ and a cosmological constant
$\Lambda$ which measures a residual curvature of the universe, which is not
ascribable to the distribution of matter-energy. That these constants should
exist is an outcome of the underlying symmetries and is confirmed by
experiments and observations, which furnish their actual values. Specifically,
it turns out on these foundations that the kinematical group of special
relativity is the de Sitter group $dS(c,\Lambda)=SO(1,4)$. On this basis, we
develop at an elementary classical and, hopefully, sufficiently didactical
level the main aspects of the theory of special relativity based on SO(1,4) (de
Sitter relativity). As an application, we apply the formalism to an intrinsic
formulation of point particle kinematics describing both inertial motion and
particle collisions and decays.
