Weatherall, James Owen (2025) Spacetime Models for Cosmology. [Preprint]

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Abstract

I revisit Roberto Torretti's "Spacetime Models for the World" [SHPMP 31 (2):171-186 (2000)] in the light of more recent work in (philosophy of) cosmology. I discuss the motivations for FLRW spacetimes as a natural starting point for inquiry, and I suggest contemporary cosmologists can avoid the rationalism that Torretti attributes to Einstein's early work in relativistic cosmology. I then discuss the senses in which FLRW models are idealized, and I show how those idealizations (and partial de-idealizations) have contributed to our understanding of the universe.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Weatherall, James Owen weatherj@uci.edu 0000-0003-1461-7821
Additional Information:	Presented as part of a symposium in honor of Roberto Torretti at CLMPST 2023 in Buenos Aires
Keywords:	cosmology, idealization, principles
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics
Depositing User:	James Owen Weatherall
Date Deposited:	08 Apr 2025 14:22
Last Modified:	08 Apr 2025 14:22
Item ID:	25018
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics
Date:	2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25018

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