Does general relativity highlight necessary connections in nature?
The dynamics of general relativity is encoded in a set of ten differential equations, the so-called Einstein field equations. It is usually believed that Einstein's equations represent a physical law describing the coupling of spacetime with material fields. However, just six of these equations actu...
| Published in: | Synthese Vol. 199; no. 1/2; pp. 4929 - 4952 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Dec2021
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=153650993&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 153650993 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2021 vid: 199 iid: 1/2 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 153650993 10.1007/s11229-020-03009-z ppf: 4929 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 531KB tig: atl: Does general relativity highlight necessary connections in nature? aug: au: Vassallo, Antonio affil: Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology, Plac Politechniki 1, 00-661, Warsaw, Poland su: Einstein field equations General relativity (Physics) Differential equations sug: subj: Einstein field equations General relativity (Physics) Differential equations keyword: Background independence Bianchi identities General relativity Humeanism Laws of nature Necessity ab: The dynamics of general relativity is encoded in a set of ten differential equations, the so-called Einstein field equations. It is usually believed that Einstein's equations represent a physical law describing the coupling of spacetime with material fields. However, just six of these equations actually describe the coupling mechanism: the remaining four represent a set of differential relations known as Bianchi identities. The paper discusses the physical role that the Bianchi identities play in general relativity, and investigates whether these identities—qua part of a physical law—highlight some kind of a posteriori necessity in a Kripkean sense. The inquiry shows that general relativistic physics has an interesting bearing on the debate about the metaphysics of the laws of nature. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2021. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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