General Relativity Needs No Interpretation

Curiel, Erik (2009) General Relativity Needs No Interpretation. In [2008]: Visiting Fellows, Center for Philosophy of Science. (2008-2009, Pittsburgh).

Abstract

I argue that, contrary to the recent claims of physicists and
philosophers of physics, general relativity requires no
interpretation in any substantive sense of the term. I canvass the
common reasons given in favor of the alleged need for an
interpretation, including the difficulty in coming to grips with the
physical significance of diffeomorphism invariance and of singular
structure, and the problems faced in the search for a theory of
quantum gravity. I find that none of them shows any defect in our
comprehension of general relativity as a physical theory. I
conclude by comparing general relativity with quantum mechanics, a
theory that manifestly does stand in need of an interpretation in an
important sense. Although many aspects of the conceptual structure
of general relativity remain poorly understood, it suffers no
incoherence in its formulation as a physical theory that only an
"interpretation'' could resolve.