Dust, Time, and Symmetry

Belot, Gordon (2004) Dust, Time, and Symmetry.

Abstract

Two symmetry arguments are discussed, each purporting to show that there is no more room in general relativistic cosmology than in Minkowski spacetime for a preferred division of spacetime into instants of time. The first argument is due to Gödel, and concerns the symmetries of his famous rotating cosmologies. The second turns upon the symmetries of a certain space of relativistic possibilities. Both arguments are found wanting.