Two moves take Newtonian determinism to branching space-times
| Abstract | “Branching space-times” (BST) is intended as a representation of objective, event-based indeterminism. As such, BST exhibits both a spatio-temporal aspect and an indeterministic “modal” aspect of alternative possible historical courses of events. An essential feature of BST is that it can also represent spatial or space-like relationships as part of its (more or less) relativistic theory of spatio-temporal relations; this ability is essential for the representation of local (in contrast with “global”) indeterminism. This essay indicates how BST might be seen to grow out of Newton’s deterministic and non-relativistic theory by two independent moves: (1) Taking account of indeterminism, and (2) attending to spatio-temporal relationships in a spirit derived from Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Since (1) and (2) are independent, one can see that there is room for four theories: Newtonian determinism, branching time indeterminism, relativistic determinism, and (finally) branching space-times indeterminism. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,672 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesNuel Belnap (2012). Newtonian Determinism to Branching Space-Times Indeterminism in Two Moves. Synthese 188 (1):5-21.
Thomas Müller (2010). Towards a Theory of Limited Indeterminism in Branching Space-Times. Journal of Philosophical Logic 39 (4).
T. Placek (2012). Indeterminism is a Modal Notion: Branching Spacetimes and Earman's Pruning. Synthese 187 (2):441-469.
Thomas Muller (2007). A Branching Space-Times View on Quantum Error Correction. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B 38 (3):635-652.
Jiri Benovsky (forthcoming). Branching and (in)Determinism. Philosophical Papers.
Tomasz Placek (2012). On Individuals in Branching Histories. Synthese 188 (1):23-39.
Nuel Belnap (1992). Branching Space-Time. Synthese 92 (3):385 - 434.
Matt Farr (2012). On A- and B-Theoretic Elements of Branching Spacetimes. Synthese 188 (1):85-116.
Nuel Belnap (2008). Funny Business in Branching Space-Times: Infinite Modal Correlations. Synthese 164 (1):141 - 159.
Ernâni Magalhães (2006). Armstrong on Thespatio-Temporality of Universals. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 84 (2):301 – 308.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-12-22Total downloads22 ( #56,171 of 549,066 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,252 of 549,066 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
