Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:19:25.553Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How to Defeat Wüthrich's Abysmal Embarrassment Argument against Space-Time Structuralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

F. A. Muller
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In his award-winning contribution to the biannual PSA conference at Pittsburgh in 2008, Christian Wüthrich mounted an argument against structuralism about space-time in the context of the general theory of relativity (GTR), to the effect that structuralists cannot discern space-time points: an “abysmal embarrassment” for the structuralist, Wüthrich judged. Wüthrich's characterization of space-time structuralism is however incorrect. We demonstrate how, on the basis of a correct characterization of space-time structuralism, it is possible to discern space-time points in the GTR structures under consideration. Thus Wüthrich's argument crumbles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 5 , December 2011 , pp. 1046 - 1057
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

My gratitude to Chris Wüthrich for valuable communication by e-mail.

References

Earman, J. 1989. World Enough and Space-Time: Absolute versus Relational Theories about Space and Time. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Keränen, J. 2001. “The Identity Problem for Realist Structuralism.” Philosophia Mathematica 9 (3): 308–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCabe, G. 2004. “The Structure and Interpretation of Cosmology.” Pt. 1, “General Relativistic Cosmology.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (4): 549–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, F. A. 2011. “Space-Time Structuralism.” Unpublished manuscript, Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Muller, F. A., and Saunders, S. W.. 2008. “Discerning Fermions.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59:499–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, S. W. 2003. “Physics and Leibniz's Principles.” In Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections, ed. Brading, K. and Castellani, E., 289–307. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weinberg, S. 1972. Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Weinberg, S.. 2008. Cosmology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wüthrich, C. 2010. “Challenging the Spacetime Structuralist.” Philosophy of Science 76 (Proceedings): 1039–51.Google Scholar