Vassallo, Antonio and Deckert, Dirk-André and Esfeld, Michael (2016) Relationalism about mechanics based on a minimalist ontology of matter. [Preprint]
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Text (Accepted for publication in European Journal for Philosophy of Science)
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Abstract
This paper elaborates on relationalism about space and time as motivated by a minimalist ontology of the physical world: there are only matter points that are individuated by the distance relations among them, with these relations changing. We assess two strategies to combine this ontology with physics, using classical mechanics as example: the Humean strategy adopts the standard, non-relationalist physical theories as they stand and interprets their formal apparatus as the means of bookkeeping of the change of the distance relations instead of committing us to additional elements of the ontology. The alternative theory strategy seeks to combine the relationalist ontology with a relationalist physical theory that reproduces the predictions of the standard theory in the domain where these are empirically tested. We show that, as things stand, this strategy cannot be accomplished without compromising a minimalist relationalist ontology.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||||||||
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| Keywords: | relationalism, parsimony, atomism, matter points, ontic structural realism, Humeanism, classical mechanics | ||||||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics |
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| Depositing User: | Antonio Vassallo | ||||||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2016 14:39 | ||||||||||||
| Last Modified: | 02 Sep 2016 14:39 | ||||||||||||
| Item ID: | 12398 | ||||||||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1007/s13194-016-0160-2 | ||||||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics |
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| Date: | September 2016 | ||||||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12398 |
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