Spacetime and Conventionalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Abstract
Salmon, following Reichenbach and others, maintained that distant simultaneity was conventional in a special relativistic world in a way in which this was not so in prerelativistic spacetime. This paper surveys and criticizes a number of proposals to unpack this claim. It goes on to argue that if the claim has validity, it rests upon differing facts about epistemic accessibility of temporal relations in the different spacetimes, and not directly upon any facts about differing causal structures in these worlds.
- Type
- Wesley C. Salmon 1925-2001: A Symposium Honoring His Contributions to the Philosophy of Science
- Information
- Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers , December 2004 , pp. 950 - 959
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2004 by the Philosophy of Science Association
Footnotes
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant. No. 0211011. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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