Geometric Possibility

1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-959532-7
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 461 g

Significant new work on the nature of space
Important implications for both physics and philosophy
Written to be accessible to readers in both disciplines

Relationalism about space is a venerable doctrine that is enjoying renewed attention among philosophers and physicists. Relationalists deny that space is ontologically prior to matter and seek to ground all claims about the structure of space in facts about actual and possible configurations of matter. Thus, many relationalists maintain that to say that space is infinite is to say that certain sorts of infinite arrays of material points are possible (even if, in fact, the world contains only a finite amount of matter).
Gordon Belot investigates the distinctive notion of geometric possibility that relationalists rely upon. He examines the prospects for adapting to the geometric case the standard philosophical accounts of the related notion of physical possibility, with particular emphasis on Humean, primitivist, and necessitarian accounts of physical and geometric possibility. This contribution to the debate concerning the nature of space will be of interest not only to philosophers and metaphysicians concerned with space and time, but also to those interested in laws of nature, modal notions, or more general issues in ontology.

Zielgruppe

Philosophers and physicists working on the structure of the physical universe.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Belot, Gordon

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Introduction
1: Possible Structures of Space
2: Spatial Structure for Relationalists
3: Best-System Approaches
4: Primitivism Approaches
5: Necessitarian Approaches
Conclusion
Appendices
References

Über Autor(innen)

Belot, Gordon
Gordon Belot is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, having previously taught at Princeton University, New York University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of a number of articles concerning the philosophy of space and time and other topics in philosophy of physics.

Gordon Belot, University of Michigan

Gordon Belot is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, having previously taught at Princeton University, New York University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of a number of articles concerning the philosophy of space and time and other topics in philosophy of physics.