Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T16:36:17.552Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is there a Syntactic Solution to the Hole Problem?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Robert Rynasiewicz
Robert Rynasiewicz*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

After some background setting in which it is shown how Maudlin's (1989, 1990) response to the hole argument of Earman and Norton (1987) is related to that of Rynasiewicz (1994), it is argued that the syntactic proposals of Mundy (1992) and of Leeds (1995), which claim to dismiss the hole argument as an uninteresting blunder, are inadequate. This leads to a discussion of how the responses of Maudlin and Rynasiewicz relate to issues about gauge freedom and relativity principles.

Type
Space-time Issues
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1996. , 1996 , pp. S55 - S62
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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

†

This work was supported in part by NSF Grant No. SBR-9511796.

‡

Department of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218.

References

Butterfield, J. (1989), “The Hole Truth”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40: 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. (1979), “The Inscrutability of Reference”, Southwestern Journal of Philosophy, 10, 7–19. Reprinted in Davidson, D., Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, J. (1986): “Why Space Is Not a Substance (At Least Not to First-Degree)”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 67, 225–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, J. (1989): World Enough and Space-Time, Absolute versus Relational Theories of Space and Time. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Earman, J. and Norton, J. (1987): “What Price Spacetime Substantivalism? The Hole Story”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38, 515–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M. (1983), Foundations of Space-Time Theories. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kretschmann, E. (1917), “Über den physikalischen Sinn der Relativitätspostulate”, Annalen der Physik 53: 575–614.Google Scholar
Leeds, S. (1995), “Holes and Determinism: Another Look”, Philosophy of Science 62: 425–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maudlin, T. (1989): “The Essence of Space-Time”, in Fine, A. and Leplin, J. (eds.), PSA 1988, Vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 82–91.Google Scholar
Maudlin, T. (1990): “Substances and Space-Time: What Aristotle Would Have Said to Einstein”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 21, 531–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mundy, B. (1992), “Space-Time and Isomorphism”, in Hull, D., Forbes, M. and Okruhik, K. (eds.), PSA 1992, Vol. 1. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 515–527.Google Scholar
Norton, J. (1987): “Einstein, the Hole Argument and the Reality of Space”, in J. Forge (ed.), Measurement, Realism and Objectivity. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, pp. 153–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norton, J. (1989): “The Hole Argument”, in Fine, A. and Leplin, J. (eds.), PSA 1988, Vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 56–64.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1981): Reason, Truth and History. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, W. V. (1969), “Ontological Relativity”, in Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rynasiewicz, R. (1994), “The Lessons of the Hole Argument”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45: 407–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, R. (1984), General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar