Against the disappearance of spacetime in quantum gravity.

This paper argues against the proposal to draw from current research into a physical theory of quantum gravity the ontological conclusion that spacetime or spatiotemporal relations are not fundamental. As things stand, the status of this proposal is like the one of all the other claims about radical...

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Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 199; no. 2; pp. 355 - 370
Autor principal: Esfeld, Michael
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Dec2021 Supplement 2
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Against the disappearance of spacetime in quantum gravity.
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        au: Esfeld, Michael
        affil: Department of Philosophy, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
      su:
        Quantum field theory
        Spacetime
        Quantum mechanics
        Quantum theory
        Quantum gravity
        Bohmian mechanics
      sug:
        subj:
          Quantum field theory
          Spacetime
          Quantum mechanics
          Quantum theory
          Quantum gravity
          Bohmian mechanics
      keyword:
        Functionalism
        General relativity theory
        Measurement problem
        Primitive ontology
        Shape dynamics
      ab: This paper argues against the proposal to draw from current research into a physical theory of quantum gravity the ontological conclusion that spacetime or spatiotemporal relations are not fundamental. As things stand, the status of this proposal is like the one of all the other claims about radical changes in ontology that were made during the development of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. However, none of these claims held up to scrutiny as a consequence of the physics once the theory was established and a serious discussion about its ontology had begun. Furthermore, the paper argues that if spacetime is to be recovered through a functionalist procedure in a theory that admits no fundamental spacetime, standard functionalism cannot serve as a model: all the known functional definitions are definitions in terms of a causal role for the motion of physical objects and hence presuppose spatiotemporal relations.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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