| Sumario: | In this article, we argue that what is often discussed under the umbrella of spacetime emergence in the philosophy of quantum gravity in fact consists of a plethora of distinct and very different problems. We therefore advocate casting such debates more specifically in terms of the emergent spatiotemporal aspects, as already happens in the physics literature. We first show how ambiguous the notion of spacetime is in general relativity. We then argue against three ways of rejecting our call for specificity: the many distinct philosophical problems relating to the emergence of the various spatiotemporal aspects do not suggest any singular, overarching, or exceptional problem of spacetime emergence. We also discuss how the objections are reflected by five conceptions of spacetime. Next, we observe that different spatiotemporal aspects are emergent in the different quantum gravity approaches, whereby investigating emergence in quantum gravity collectively is problematic. Finally, we illustrate how philosophical inquiries that employ notions of spacetime emergence are aided by conducting the investigation at the level of specific spatiotemporal aspects.
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