The singular nature of spacetime
Philosophy of Science 74 (5):712-723 (2007)
Abstract
We consider to what extent the fundamental question of spacetime singularities is relevant for the philosophical debate about the nature of spacetime. After reviewing some basic aspects of the spacetime singularities within general relativity, we argue that the well known difficulty to localize them in a meaningful way may challenge the received metaphysical view of spacetime as a set of points possessing some intrinsic properties together with some spatiotemporal relations. Considering the algebraic formulation of general relativity, we argue that the spacetime singularities highlight the philosophically misleading dependence on the standard geometric representation of spacetime. †To contact the author, please write to: Department of Philosophy, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; e-mail: [email protected]Author's Profile
Reprint years
2006
DOI
10.1086/525616
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Citations of this work
No Categorial Support for Radical Ontic Structural Realism.Vincent Lam & Christian Wüthrich - 2015 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (3):605-634.
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Multi-Descriptional Physicalism, Level(s) of Being, and the Mind-Body Problem.Savvas Ioannou - 2022 - Dissertation, University of St. Andrews
References found in this work
Science Without Numbers: A Defence of Nominalism.Hartry H. Field - 1980 - Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.
Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes.John Earman & Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science John Earman - 1995 - Oxford University Press.
Moderate structural realism about space-time.Michael Esfeld & Vincent Lam - 2008 - Synthese 160 (1):27 - 46.