The analysis of singular spacetimes

Philosophy of Science 66 (3):145 (1999)
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Abstract

Much controversy surrounds the question of what ought to be the proper definition of 'singularity' in general relativity, and the question of whether the prediction of such entities leads to a crisis for the theory. I argue that a definition in terms of curve incompleteness is adequate, and in particular that the idea that singularities correspond to 'missing points' has insurmountable problems. I conclude that singularities per se pose no serious problem for the theory, but their analysis does bring into focus several problems of interpretation at the foundation of the theory often ignored in the philosophical literature

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2009-01-28

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Erik Curiel
Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München

Citations of this work

Philosophy of Cosmology.Chris Smeenk - 2013 - In Robert Batterman (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 607-652.
Global Spacetime Structure.John Byron Manchak - 2013 - Cambridge University Press.
A Primer on Energy Conditions.Erik Curiel - 2017 - In Dennis Lehmkuhl, Gregor Schiemann & Erhard Scholz (eds.), Towards a Theory of Spacetime Theories. Birkhäuser. pp. 43-104.
No Categorial Support for Radical Ontic Structural Realism.Vincent Lam & Christian Wüthrich - 2015 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (3):605-634.

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