How to Defeat Wüthrich's Abysmal Embarrassment Argument against Space-Time Structuralism.

In his award-winning contribution to the biannual PSA conference at Pittsburgh in 2008, Christian Wüthrich mounted an argument against structuralism about spacetime in the context of the general theory of relativity (GTR), to the effect that structuralists cannot discern space-time points: an "abysm...

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Published in:Philosophy of Science Vol. 78; no. 5; pp. 1046 - 1058
Main Author: Muller, F. A.
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge University Press Dec2011
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: How to Defeat Wüthrich's Abysmal Embarrassment Argument against Space-Time Structuralism.
      aug:
        au: Muller, F. A.
        affil:
          Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 6, IGGWG-3.11, 3584 CD Utrecht, the Netherlands
          Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam
      su:
        Wüthrich, Christian
        Structuralism
        Spacetime
        Philosophy of science
        General relativity (Physics)
        Realism
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          Wüthrich, Christian
          Structuralism
          Spacetime
          Philosophy of science
          General relativity (Physics)
          Realism
      ab: In his award-winning contribution to the biannual PSA conference at Pittsburgh in 2008, Christian Wüthrich mounted an argument against structuralism about spacetime in the context of the general theory of relativity (GTR), to the effect that structuralists cannot discern space-time points: an "abysmal embarrassment" for the structuralist, Wüthrich judged. Wüthrich's characterization of spacetime structuralism is however incorrect. We demonstrate how, on the basis of a correct characterization of space-time structuralism, it is possible to discern space-time points in the GTR structures under consideration. Thus Wüthrich's argument crumbles.
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    language: English
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