Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Structural Essentialism and Determinism

  • Published:
Erkenntnis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper tries to develop Bartels’s modern essentialism as a structural-role theory of identity for spacetime points. I adopt Hoefer’s idea of denying primitive identity for this theory and apply it to GTR and prerelativistic physics to find different versions of essentialism and different definitions of determinism which are coherent with them. I also try to argue that modified essentialism helps us to refute objections raised against essentialism and offers us the best understanding of prerelativistic and relativistic theories.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • R.M. Adams (1979) ArticleTitle‘Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity’ Journal of Philosophy 76 5–26

    Google Scholar 

  • H.G. Aleksander (Eds) (1984) The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence Barnes and Noble New York

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Bartels (1996) ArticleTitle‘Modern Essentialism and the Problem of Individuation of Spacetime Points’ Erkenntnis 45 25–43 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00226369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M. Black (1952) ArticleTitle‘The Identity of Indiscernibles’ Mind 242 153–164

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Butterfield (1989) ArticleTitle‘The Hole Truth’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40 1–28

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Demaret M. Heller D. Lambert (1997) ArticleTitle‘Local and Global Properties of the World’ Foundations of Science 2 137–176 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1009691614005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. Earman (1986a) ArticleTitle‘Why Space Is Not a Substance (at Least Not to First Degree)’ Pacific Philosophical Quartely 67 225–244

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Earman (1986b) A Primer on Determinism D. Reidel Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Earman (1989) World Enough and Space-Time MIT Press Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Earman J. Norton (1987) ArticleTitle‘What Price Space-Time Substantivalism? The Hole Story’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 515–525

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Einstein (1961) Relativity The special and General Theory Crown Publishers New York

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Friedman (1983) Foundation of Space-Time Theories Princeton University Press Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • R. Geroch (1972) ArticleTitle‘Einstein Algebras’ Communication in Mathematical Physics 26 271–279 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF01645521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. Gołosz (1999) ArticleTitle‘On Field’s Argument for Substantivalism’ International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 1 5–16

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Gołosz (2002,) ‘Motion, Space, Time’ H. Eilstein (Eds) A Collection of Polish Works on Philosphical Problems of Time and Spacetime Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • A.R. Hall M.B. Hall (Eds) (1962) Unpublished Scientific Papers of Issac Newton Cambridge University Press Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • S.W. Hawking G.F.R. Ellis (1973) The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time Cambridge University Press Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Hoefer (1996) ArticleTitle‘The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism’ Journal of Philosophy 93 5–27

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Hoefer (1998) ArticleTitle‘Absolute Versus Relational Spacetime: For Better or Worse, the Debate Goes On’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 451–467 Occurrence Handle10.1093/bjps/49.3.451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • W. Kopczyński A. Trautman (1992) Spacetime and Gravitation PWN-John Wiley Warszawa-Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Maudlin, T.: 1988, ‘The Essence of Space-Time’, in A. Fine and J. Leplin (eds.), PSA, Vol. 2, Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, pp. 82–91

  • T. Maudlin (1990) ArticleTitle‘Substances and Spcae-Time: What Aristotle Would Have Said to Einstein’ Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21 531–561 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0039-3681(90)90032-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norton, J.: 1988, ‘The Hole Argument’, in A. Fine and J. Leplin (eds.), PSA, Vol. 2, Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, pp. 56–64

  • R. Rynasiewicz (1992) ArticleTitle‘Rings, Holes and Substantivalsim: on the Program of Leibniz Algebras’ Philosophy of Science 59 572–589 Occurrence Handle10.1086/289696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R. Rynasiewicz (1994) ArticleTitle‘The Lessons of the Hole Argument’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45 407–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Stachel, J.: 1986, ‘What a Physicist Can Learn from the Discovery of General Relativity’, in R. Ruffini (ed.), Proceedings of the Fourth Marcel Grossman Meeting on Recent Development in General Relativity, North Holland, Amsterdam

  • B. Van Fraassen (1991) Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View Clarendon Press Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • R.M. Wald (1984) General Relativity University of Chicago Press Chicago

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Grodzka 52, Krakow, 31-044, Poland

    Jerzy Gołosz

Authors
  1. Jerzy Gołosz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jerzy Gołosz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gołosz, J. Structural Essentialism and Determinism. Erkenntnis 63, 73–100 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-005-4699-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-005-4699-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation