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Is Newtonian Cosmology Really Inconsistent?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

David B. Malament
David B. Malament*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Chicago
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Abstract

John Norton has recently argued that Newtonian gravitation theory (at least as applied to cosmological contexts where one envisions the possibility of a homogeneous mass distribution throughout all of space) is inconsistent. I am not convinced. Traditional formulations of the theory may seem to break down in cases of the sort Norton considers. But the difficulties they face are only apparent. They are artifacts of the formulations themselves, and disappear if one passes to the so-called “geometrized” formulation of the theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 489 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

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Footnotes

†

I wish to thank John Earman, Robert Geroch, John Norton, and Robert Wald for helpful comments.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, 1050 East 59th Street, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.

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