What Spacetime Explains: Metaphysical Essays On Space And Time

Graham Nerlich is one of the most distinguished contemporary philosophers of space and time. What spacetime explains brings together eleven of his essays in a single carefully structured volume, dealing with ontology and methodology in relativity; variable curvature and general relativity; and time and causation. These essays argue that space and time are comprised in spacetime, that spacetime is real, and that its structure forms a main part of the apparatus of the explanation of science. Professor Nerlich provides a general introduction to his collection and also introductions to each part to bring the discussion up-to-date and to draw out the general themes. What spacetime explains Metaphysical essays on space and time What spacetime explains Metaphysical essays on space and time GRAHAM NERLICH Professor of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, South Australia CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by the Press Syndics of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY100111-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1994 Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Nerlich, Graham, 1929What spacetime explains: metaphysical essays on space and time/ Graham Nerlich P. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 45261 9 (hardback) 1. Space and time. 2. Relativity (Physics) I. Title BD632.N47 1994 115 - dc20 93-27336 CIP Transferred to digital printing 2004 GCN For Margaret Contents Preface Introduction Part One Ontology and methodology in relativity On Learning from the mistakes of Positivists 1 1 Aims of the paper 2 Conventionalism and simultaneity 3 The relativity of motion 4 Non-decisive a priori criteria 5 The geometry of force 6 The relativity of motion in General Relativity 7 Other ways of understanding spacetime 2 What ontology can be about with Andrew Westwell-Roper 1 2 3 4 5 3 Introduction Structures in spacetime Is causality really causal? What is ontic structure? Studying structure Special Relativity is not based on causality 1 Introduction 2 The Invariance Principle page xiii 1 11 17 17 18 22 25 28 29 32 37 38 40 42 46 48 58 58 62 3 Tachyons 67 4 5 6 Causality 71 Foundations for spacetime structure Conclusion 82 89 x 4 List of contents Simultaneity and convention in Special Relativity 91 91 Introduction 94 2 Coordinate systems for spacetime 3 Frames of reference 102 4 Historical remarks on the concept of a frame of reference 112 115 5 The privileged status of Lorentz frames Motion and change of distance 119 119 1 Introduction 2 Presuppositions in the kinematical idea of motion 123 1 5 3 4 Kinematics in Special Relativity Some epistemological conclusions Part Two Variable curvature and General Relativity 6 How Euclidean geometry has misled metaphysics 1 Introduction 2 Doubling in size 3 Objections to the doubling argument 4 Leibniz and the detachment thesis 5 Some conclusions so far 6