On the Ontology of Spacetime: Substantivalism, Relationism, Eternalism, and Emergence

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• 作者：Gustavo E. Romero
• 关键词：Ontology ; Physics ; Spacetime
• 刊名：Foundations of Science
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：22
• 期：1
• 页码：141-159
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Philosophy of Science; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Mathematical Logic and Foundations;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-8471
• 卷排序：22

文摘

I present a discussion of some issues in the ontology of spacetime. After a characterisation of the controversies among relationists, substantivalists, eternalists, and presentists, I offer a new argument for rejecting presentism, the doctrine that only present objects exist. Then, I outline and defend a form of spacetime realism that I call event substantivalism. I propose an ontological theory for the emergence of spacetime from more basic entities (timeless and spaceless ‘events’). Finally, I argue that a relational theory of pre-geometric entities can give rise to substantival spacetime in such a way that relationism and substantivalism are not necessarily opposed positions, but rather complementary. In an appendix I give axiomatic formulations of my ontological views.