On quantitative relationist theories
Philosophy of Science 56 (4):582-600 (1989)
| Abstract | Mundy (1983) presented the formal apparatus of certain relationist theories of space and space-time taking quantitative relations as primitive. The present paper discusses the philosophical and physical interpretation of such theories, and replies to some objections to such theories and to relationism in general raised in Field (1985). Under an appropriate second-order naturalistic Platonist interpretation of the formalism, quantitative relationist theories are seen to be entirely comparable to spatialist ones in respect of the issues raised by Field. Moreover, it appears that even if accepted as sound, Field's general line of criticism would not diminish the significance of relationism for philosophy of science, since this derives primarily from its connection to physical rather than to mathematical or philosophical ontology | |||||||||
| 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: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesChristina Conroy (2008). No Lacuna and No Vicious Regress: A Reply to le Poidevin. Acta Analytica 23 (4):367-372.
Carl Hoefer (2000). Kant's Hands and Earman's Pions: Chirality Arguments for Substantival Space. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14 (3):237 – 256.
Fritz Rohrlich & Larry Hardin (1983). Established Theories. Philosophy of Science 50 (4):603-617.
Don Robinson (1994). The History and Philosophy of Quantum Field Theory. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1994:61 - 68.
D. Dieks (2001). Space and Time in Particle and Field Physics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B 32 (2):217-241.
Carl Hoefer (1998). Absolute Versus Relational Spacetime: For Better or Worse, the Debate Goes On. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (3):451-467.
Dennis Dieks (2001). Space-Time Relationism in Newtonian and Relativistic Physics. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 15 (1):5 – 17.
Carolyn Brighouse (1999). Incongruent Counterparts and Modal Relationism. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13 (1):53 – 68.
Brent Mundy (1991). Embedding and Uniqueness in Relationist Theories. Philosophy of Science 58 (1):102-124.
J. Butterfield (1984). Relationism and Possible Worlds. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 35 (2):101-113.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads9 ( #114,124 of 549,119 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,361 of 549,119 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
