Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T13:16:55.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Can We Dispense With Space-Time?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Hartr Field*
Affiliation:
University of Southern California

Extract

According to the relational theory of space-time, the physical world contains spatio-temporal aggregates of matter (spatio-temporally extended physical objects, spatio-temporal parts’ of such objects, and aggregates consisting of spatio-temporal parts of different objects); these aggregates of matter are interrelated in various ways by various geometric (and also non-geometric) relations, but the physical world does not contain a space-time over and above these aggregates of matter and their interrelations.

It is tempting to put this doctrine by saying that there are no space-time regions, but only aggregates of matter. This formulation might be faulted, for a relationalist might want to “logically construct” regions out of aggregates of matter, and given such a “logical construction” the relationalist will assert that regions do exist.

Type
Part II. Space and Time
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by 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

1

I talked about the topics of this paper in a seminar at MIT in the spring of 1984. I learned a great deal as a result of the sustained discussion by several participants in that seminar, especially Ned Block and Paul Horwich; as a result, this paper includes discussions of many possible strategies for the relationalist that I would otherwise have overlooked. I'd also like to thank Paul Teller for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

References

Boolos, George (1984). “To Be Is To Be the Value of a Variable (Or Some Values of Some Variables).” Journal of Philosophy 81: 430-449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, John (1984). “Synthetic Mechanics.” Journal of Philosophical Logic 13: 379-395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crossley, Joh and Humberstone, Lloyd (1977). “The Logic of ‘Actually’.” Reports on Mathematical Logic 8: 11-29.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald (1965). “Theories of Meaning and Learnable Languages.” In Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Edited by Bar-Hillel, Yehoshu. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Pages 383-394 .Google Scholar
Dummett, Michael (1976). “What Is a Theory of Meaning? (II).” In Truth and meaning: Essays in Semantics. Edited by Evans, Garet and McDowell, Joh. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages 67-137.Google Scholar
Field, Hartry (1980). Scienoe Without Numbers: A Defense of Nominalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Field, Hartry (1982). “Realism and Anti-Realism About Mathematics.” Philosophical Topics 13: 45-69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Hartry (1984). “Is Mathematical Knowledge Just Logical Knowledge.” Philosophical Review 93: 509-552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Hartry (1985). “On Conservativeness and Incompleteness.” Journal of Philosophy 82: 239-260.Google Scholar
Friedman, Michael (1981). Review of Field (1980). Philosophy of Science 48: 505-506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilmore, P.C (1974). “The Consistency of Partial Set Theory Without Extensionality.” Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics 8: 147-153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwioh, Paul (1978). “On the Existence of Time, Space, and Space- Time.” Nous 12: 397-419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krantz, D.; Luce, R.D.; Suppes, P.; and Tversky, A (1971). Foundations of Measurement. Volume 1. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kripke, Sau (1975). “Outline of a Theory of Truth.” Journal of Philosophy 72: 690-716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David (1968). “Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic.” Journal of Philosophy 65: 113-126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David (1973) Counterfactuals. Cambridge: Harvard university Press.Google Scholar
Loar, Brian (1981). Mind and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maddy, Penelope (1983). “Proper Classes.” Journal of Symbolic Logic 48: 113-139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malament, David (1982). Review of Field (1980). Journal of Philosophy 79: 523-534 .Google Scholar
Mundy, Brent (1983). “Relational Theories of Euclidean Space and Minkowski Spacetime.” Philosophy of Science 50: 205-226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Hilary (1970). “On Properties.” In Essays in Honor of Carl Hempel. Edited by Nicholas Rescher et al. New York: Humanities Press. Pages 235-254.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary (1981). Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Stewart (1983). “Conservativeness and Incompleteness.” Journal of Philosophy 80: 521-531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Stewart (1984). Review of Field (1980). Philosophia 14: 437-443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1974). Space, Time, and Spacetime. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Stalnaker, Robert (1976). “Possible Worlds.” Nous 10: 65-75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, Pau. (Unpublished). “Space-Time As a Physical Quantity.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar