World Enough and Space-Time

Newton's Principia introduced conceptions of space and time that launched one of the most famous and sustained debates in the history of physics, a controversy that involves fundamental concerns in the foundations of physics, metaphysics, and scientific epistemology.This book introduces and clarifies the historical and philosophical development of the clash between Newton's absolute conception of space and Leibniz's relational one. It separates the issues and provides new perspectives on absolute relational accounts of motion and relational-substantival accounts of the ontology of space time.Earman's sustained treatment and imaginative insights raise to a new level the debate on these important issues at the boundary of philosophy and physics. He surveys the history of the controversy from Newton to Einstein develops the mathematics and physics needed to pose the issues in sharp form and provides a persuasive assessment of the philosophical problems involved.Most importantly, Earman revitalizes the connection of the debate to contemporary science. He shows, for example, how concerns raised by Leibniz form the core of ongoing debate on the foundations of general theory of relativity, moving the discussion into a new and vital arena and introducing arguments that will be discussed for years to come.John Earman is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. A Bradford Book

ISBN 0262550210   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780262550215 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 362 Publisher MIT Press Ltd   Published in Cambridge, Mass. Imprint MIT Press   Series title Bradford Books Format Paperback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 01 Jun 1992   Width (mm) 152 DEWEY 115   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY edition DC12A   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate Pages 200

Part 1 The origins of the absolute-relational controversy: newtown on absolute space and time; senses of absoluteness; relationism; Leibniz and the ideality of space; other relationisms; the vacuum; Newton's scholium on absolute space and time. Part 2 Classical space-times: Machian, Leibnizian and Maxwellian space-time; neo-Newtonian or Galilean space-time; full Newtonian space-time; Aristotelian and other classical space-times; absolute objects. Part 3 Choosing a classical space-time: arguments from the meaning of "Motion"; arguments from epistemology; arguments from scientific theorizing; symmetry principles; absolute space; symmetries, the structure of space-time, and substantivalism; comments on symmetry, invariance, and dynamics. Part 4 rotation: Newton's argument from rotation; the Huygens-Leibniz correspondence, Huygens's, Leibniz's, Berkeley's, Kant's, Maxwell's, Mach's, and Poincare's response; instrumentalism. Part 5 Relational theories of motion - a 20th-century perspective: relational theories of motion in a classical setting; the relational theories of Barbour and Bertotti; Einstein on rotation; rotation and relativity; relativistic rigid motion; relativity, relationism, and rotation; Einstein's critique revisited; Mach's principle; rigid motion in relativistic space-times. Part 6 Substantivalism - Newton versus Leibniz: space and space-time as substances; Leibniz's argument; the structure of Leibniz's argument; Leibniz's weapons; the reach and implications of Leibniz's argument; limitations(?) on Leibniz's argument; responses to Leibniz's argument; the absolutist counterattack; Sklar's manoeuvre; Leibniz on force; possibilia and relationism. Part 7 Kant, incongruent counterparts, and absolute space: Kant's argument against relationism; a relationist account of the distinction between right and left; parity nonconservation; incongruent counterparts and the intuitive nature of space. Part 8 Modern treatments of substantivalism and relationism: Field's view; relativity and Fields; Fields and manifold substantivalism; the first hole construction; Friedman in relationism - model-submodel versus model embedding; Mundy on relational theories of Euclidean space and Minkowski space-time; what the antisubstantivalist must do. Part 9 General relativity and substantivalism - a very holey story: Einstin's hole argument; perils of determinism; space-time substantivalism and the possibility of determinism; taking the possibility of determinism seriously; the role of the mutability of space-time structure; the Leibnizian reaction; Einstein's reaction; a catalogue of responses to Einstein's hole construction; trying to do without space-time points; another relationist aproach; an absolutist counterattack; predication and identiy; essentialism; counterpart theory.

"This is a book about two related questions: Is motion absolute or relative? Is space a substance? . . If you are fond of a good discussion and have interest in the fundamental concepts of space, time, and motion, then this is a book for you." - Classical and Quantum Gravity "Earman has produced a comprehensive and very exciting study of many of the most important metaphysical issues in the theory of space and time. " - Lawrence Sklar, University of Michigan

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