Le Bihan, Baptiste (2018) Space Emergence in Contemporary Physics: Why We Do Not Need Fundamentality, Layers of Reality and Emergence. [Preprint]
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Abstract
‘Space does not exist fundamentally: it emerges from a more fundamental non-spatial structure.’ This intriguing claim appears in various research programs in contemporary physics. Philosophers of physics tend to believe that this claim entails either that spacetime does not exist, or that it is derivatively real. In this article, I introduce and defend a third metaphysical interpretation of the claim: reductionism about space. I argue that, as a result, there is no need to subscribe to fundamentality, layers of reality and emergence in order to analyse the constitution of space by non-spatial entities. It follows that space constitution, if borne out, does not provide empirical evidence in favour of a stratified, Aristotelian in spirit, metaphysics. The view will be described in relation to two particular research programs in contemporary physics: wave function realism and loop quantum gravity.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in Disputatio | ||||||
| Keywords: | spacetime; space; emergence; fundamentality; levels of reality; quantum gravity; loop quantum gravity; configuration space realism | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Philosophers of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Baptiste Le Bihan | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 06 Nov 2018 15:32 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 06 Nov 2018 15:32 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 15263 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Philosophers of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism |
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| Date: | 6 November 2018 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15263 |
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