Relationism and possible worlds

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 35 (2):101-113 (1984)
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Abstract

Relationism claims that our physical theory does not commit us to spacetime points. I consider how a relationist might rewrite physical theories without referring to spacetime points, by appealing to possible objects and possible configurations of objects. I argue that a number of difficulties confront this project. I also argue that a relationist need not be Machian in the sense of claiming that objects' spatiotemporal relations determine whether any object is accelerating.

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Jeremy Butterfield
Cambridge University

Citations of this work

On the Existence of Spacetime Structure.Erik Curiel - 2014 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science:axw014.
Relational Time.Matteo Morganti - 2015 - In Tomasz Bigaj & Christian Wüthrich (eds.), Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics. Boston: Brill | Rodopi. pp. 215-236.
Ephemeral Point-Events: Is There a Last Remnant of Physical Objectivity?Michele Vallisneri & Massimo Pauri - 2002 - Diálogos. Revista de Filosofía de la Universidad de Puerto Rico 37 (79):263-304.

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