Placek, Tomasz and Belnap, Nuel (2011) Indeterminism is a modal notion: branching spacetimes and Earman’s pruning. Synthese. ISSN 1573-0964
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Abstract
The paper defends an Aristotelian notion of indeterminism, as rigorously formulated in the framework of branching space-times (BST) of Belnap (1992), against criticism by Earman’s (2008) based on a model-theoretic characterization of indeterminism. It delineates BST branching against the background provided by Earman’s (2008) distinction between individual versus ensemble branching. Partly in order to motivate our responses to Earman, it describes a construction of physically motivated BST models, in which histories are isomorphic to Minkowski spacetime. Finally it responds to Earman’s criticisms leveled against BST by addressing a topological issue, the question of an actual future, the past/future asymmetry, and some semantical questions.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | |||||||||
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| Keywords: | determinism, spacetime, branching space-times | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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| Depositing User: | Tomasz Placek | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 28 May 2011 22:04 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 28 May 2011 22:04 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 8631 | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Synthese | |||||||||
| Publisher: | Springer (Springer Science+Business Media B.V.) | |||||||||
| Official URL: | http://www.springerlink.com/content/n77521u7467n02... | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
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| Date: | 20 May 2011 | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 1573-0964 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8631 |
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- Indeterminism is a modal notion: branching spacetimes and Earman’s pruning. (deposited 28 May 2011 22:04) [Currently Displayed]
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