Romero, Gustavo E.
(2017)
On the ontology of spacetime:
Substantivalism, relationism, eternalism, and emergence.
Foundations of Science.
ISSN 1233-1821
Abstract
I present a discussion of some issues in the ontology of spacetime.
After a characterisation of the controversies among relationists, substantivalists,
eternalists, and presentists, I offer a new argument for rejecting presentism,
the doctrine that only present objects exist. Then, I outline and defend
a form of spacetime realism that I call event substantivalism. I propose an
ontological theory for the emergence of spacetime from more basic entities
(timeless and spaceless `events'). Finally, I argue that a relational theory of
pre-geometric entities can give rise to substantival spacetime in such a way
that relationism and substantivalism are not necessarily opposed positions,
but rather complementary. In an appendix I give axiomatic formulations of
my ontological views.
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