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The Delicacy of Counterfactuals in General Relativity (Or: If General Relativity Were Not Difficult, Its Counterfactuals Would Be Easy)

Curiel, Erik (2014) The Delicacy of Counterfactuals in General Relativity (Or: If General Relativity Were Not Difficult, Its Counterfactuals Would Be Easy). [Preprint]

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Abstract

General relativity poses serious problems for counterfactual
propositions peculiar to it as a physical theory, problems that have
gone unremarked on in the physics and in the philosophy literature.
Because these problems arise from the dynamical nature of spacetime
geometry, they are shared by all schools of thought on how
counterfactuals should be interpreted and understood. Given the
role of counterfactuals in the characterization of, inter
alia, many accounts of scientific laws, theory-confirmation and
causation, general relativity once again presents us with
idiosyncratic puzzles any attempt to analyze and understand the
nature of scientific knowledge and of science itself must face.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Curiel, Erikerik@strangebeautiful.com
Keywords: counterfactuals general relativity
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Laws of Nature
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Depositing User: Dr. Erik Curiel
Date Deposited: 31 Oct 2014 22:00
Last Modified: 16 Sep 2015 13:01
Item ID: 11107
Official URL: http://strangebeautiful.com/phil-phys.html
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Laws of Nature
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Date: 2014
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11107

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