On the Existence of Spacetime Structure.
I examine the debate between substantivalists and relationalists about the ontological character of spacetime and conclude it is not well posed. I argue that the hole argument does not bear on the debate, because it provides no clear criterion to distinguish the positions. I propose two such precise...
| Publicado en: | British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Vol. 69; no. 2; pp. 447 - 484 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Chicago Press
Jun2018
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=129643287&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 129643287 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00070882 BPL jtl: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science issn: 00070882 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2018 vid: 69 iid: 2 pid: 415 pub: University of Chicago Press artinfo: ui: 129643287 10.1093/bjps/axw014 ppf: 447 ppct: 37 formats: tig: atl: On the Existence of Spacetime Structure. aug: au: Curiel, Erik affil: Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitä t Munich, Germany su: Existence theorems Spacetime Manifolds (Mathematics) Realism Instrumentalism (Philosophy) sug: subj: Existence theorems Spacetime Manifolds (Mathematics) Realism Instrumentalism (Philosophy) ab: I examine the debate between substantivalists and relationalists about the ontological character of spacetime and conclude it is not well posed. I argue that the hole argument does not bear on the debate, because it provides no clear criterion to distinguish the positions. I propose two such precise criteria and construct separate arguments based on each to yield contrary conclusions, one supportive of something like relationalism and the other of something like substantivalism. The lesson is that one must fix an investigative context in order to make such criteria precise, but different investigative contexts yield inconsistent results. I examine questions of existence about spacetime structures other than the spacetime manifold itself to argue that it is more fruitful to focus on pragmatic issues of physicality, a notion that lends itself to several different explications, all of philosophical interest, none privileged a priori over any of the others. I conclude by suggesting an extension of the lessons of my arguments to the broader debate between realists and instrumentalists. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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