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Can We Know the Global Structure of Spacetime?

Manchak, John Byron (2008) Can We Know the Global Structure of Spacetime? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Here, we briefly review the notion of observational indistinguishability within the context of classical general relativity. We settle a conjecture given by Malament (1977) concerning the subject and then strengthen the result considerably. The upshot is this: There seems to be a robust sense in which the global structure of every cosmological model is underdetermined.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
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Manchak, John Byron
Additional Information: Forthcoming in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Keywords: Epistemology, Observational Indistinguishability, Underdetermination, General Relativity, Cosmology
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics
Depositing User: John Byron Manchak
Date Deposited: 16 Aug 2008
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:16
Item ID: 4162
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics
Date: August 2008
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/4162

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