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14 - Extending Lewisian Modal Metaphysics from a Specific Quantum Gravity Perspective

from Part III - Issues of Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2020

Edited by
Nick Huggett ,
Keizo Matsubara  and
Christian Wüthrich
Nick Huggett
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Keizo Matsubara
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Christian Wüthrich
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
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Summary

It is commonly held in many philosophy of quantum gravity circles that endorsing Lewis ontology of modal realism is incompatible with endorsing the fundamental physical ontology of any quantum gravity theory. The unsolvable tension would be between the Lewis metaphysical commitment to the fundamentality of space and time and the physical lesson of quantum gravity about the disappearance of space and time from the fundamental structure of the world. In this essay I argue against the idea that the tension is unsolvable. This analysis does not apply to quantum gravity in genera, but only to quantum string theory.

Keywords

David Lewissimilarity relationphysical lawmodal metaphysicsHumean supervenienceHumean mosaicmoduli spacephysical possibilitypossibilitytopological orderingstring theory
Type
Chapter
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Beyond Spacetime
The Foundations of Quantum Gravity
 , pp. 304 - 337
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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