This book contains selected papers from the First International
Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime. Its fourteen chapters
address two main questions: first, what is the current status of
the substantivalism/relationalism debate, and second, what about
the prospects of presentism and becoming within present-day physics
and its philosophy? The overall tenor of the four chapters of the
book's first part is that the prospects of spacetime
substantivalism are bleak, although different possible positions
remain with respect to the ontological status of spacetime. Part II
and Part III of the book are devoted to presentism, eternalism, and
becoming, from two different perspectives. In the six chapters of
Part II it is argued, in different ways, that relativity theory
does not have essential consequences for these issues. It certainly
is true that the structure of time is different, according to
relativity theory, from the one in classical theory. But that does
not mean that a decision is forced between presentism and
eternalism, or that becoming has proved to be an impossible
concept. It may even be asked whether presentism and eternalism
really offer different ontological perspectives at all. The writers
of the last four chapters, in Part III, disagree. They argue that
relativity theory is incompatible with becoming and presentism.
Several of them come up with proposals to go beyond relativity, in
order to restore the prospects of presentism.
- Space and time in present-day physics and philosophy
- Introduction from scratch of the debates surrounding time
- Broad spectrum of approaches, coherently represented
General
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