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Are Newtonian Gravitation and Geometrized Newtonian Gravitation Theoretically Equivalent?

Weatherall, James Owen (2015) Are Newtonian Gravitation and Geometrized Newtonian Gravitation Theoretically Equivalent? [Preprint]

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Abstract

I argue that a criterion of theoretical equivalence due to Clark Glymour [Nous 11(3), 227-251 (1977)] does not capture an important sense in which two theories may be equivalent. I then motivate and state an alternative criterion that does capture the sense of equivalence I have in mind. The principal claim of the paper is that relative to this second criterion, the answer to the question posed in the title is "yes", at least on one natural understanding of Newtonian gravitation.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Weatherall, James Owenweatherj@uci.edu
Keywords: Theoretical equivalence; Categorical equivalence; Gauge theory; Geometrized Newtonian gravitation
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
General Issues > Conventionalism
Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Structure of Theories
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User: James Owen Weatherall
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2015 12:57
Last Modified: 19 Jul 2015 12:57
Item ID: 11575
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
General Issues > Conventionalism
Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Structure of Theories
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date: 2015
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11575

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