Lam, Vincent and Wuthrich, Christian (2021) Laws beyond spacetime. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Quantum gravity's suggestion that spacetime may be emergent and so only exist contingently would force a radical reconception of extant analyses of laws of nature. Humeanism presupposes a spatiotemporal mosaic of particular matters of fact on which laws supervene; primitivism and dispositionalism conceive of the action of primitive laws or of dispositions as a process of 'nomic production' unfolding over time. We show how the Humean supervenience basis of non-modal facts and primitivist or dispositionalist accounts of nomic production can be reconceived, avoiding a reliance on fundamental spacetime. However, it is unclear that naturalistic forms of Humeanism can maintain their commitment to there being no necessary connections among distinct entities. Furthermore, non-temporal conceptions of production render this central concept more elusive than before. In fact, the challenges run so deep that the survival of the investigated analyses into the era of quantum gravity is questionable.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Additional Information: | 20 pages | |||||||||
| Keywords: | Laws of nature, quantum gravity, Humeanism, best systems analysis, primitivism, dispositionalism, emergence of spacetime | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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| Depositing User: | Christian Wuthrich | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 10 Nov 2021 04:59 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2021 04:59 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 19827 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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| Date: | 8 November 2021 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19827 |
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