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Points, curves, and hypersurfaces: Reassessing the historical geometric object concept

March, Eleanor (2025) Points, curves, and hypersurfaces: Reassessing the historical geometric object concept. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In contemporary philosophy of physics, there has recently been a renewed interest in the theory of geometric objects - a programme developed originally by geometers such as Schouten, Veblen, and others in the 1920s and 30s. However, as yet, there has been little-to-no systematic investigation into the history of the geometric object concept. I discuss the early development of the geometric object concept, and show that geometers working on the programme in the 1920s and early 1930s had a more expansive conception of geometric objects than that which is found in later presentations - which, unlike the modern conception of geometric objects, included embedded submanifolds such as points, curves, and hypersurfaces. I reconstruct and critically evaluate their arguments for this more expansive geometric object concept, and also locate and assess the transition to the more restrictive modern geometric object concept.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
March, Eleanoreleanor.march@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Keywords: Geometric objects, geometry, general covariance
Subjects: General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User: Eleanor March
Date Deposited: 12 Jan 2025 13:47
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2025 13:47
Item ID: 24517
Subjects: General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date: 10 January 2025
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24517

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