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Can Spacetime Help Settle Any Issues in Modern Philosophy?

Huggett, Nick (2006) Can Spacetime Help Settle Any Issues in Modern Philosophy? UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

This paper has two goals. (i) I explore the limits of the mathematical theory of spacetime (more generally, differential geometry) as an analytical tool for interpreting early modern thought. While it dramatically clarifies some issues, it can also lead to misunderstandings of some figures, and is a very poor tool indeed for others - Leibniz in particular. (ii) I will show how to blunt a very influential argument against a relational conception of spacetime - the view that the properties and relations of bodies exhaust the spatiotemporal.


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Item Type: Other
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Huggett, Nick
Additional Information: This paper was presented at the NYU Issues in Modern Philosophy Conference, November 10-11 2006.
Keywords: Newton, Stein, Leibniz, Earman, substantivalism, relativity, relationism, motion, scholium
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science
Specific Sciences > Physics
Depositing User: Nick Huggett
Date Deposited: 09 Dec 2006
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:14
Item ID: 3085
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science
Specific Sciences > Physics
Date: 2006
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3085

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