Local and Global Properties of the World

Foundations of Science 2 (1):137-176 (1997)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The essence of the method of physics is inseparably connected with the problem of interplay between local and global properties of the universe. In the present paper we discuss this interplay as it is present in three major departments of contemporary physics: general relativity, quantum mechanics and some attempts at quantizing gravity (especially geometrodynamics and its recent successors in the form of various pregeometry conceptions). It turns out that all big interpretative issues involved in this problem point towards the necessity of changing from the standard space-time geometry to some radically new, most probably non-local, generalization. We argue that the recent noncommutative geometry offers attractive possibilities, and gives us a conceptual insight into its algebraic foundations. Noncommutative spaces are, in general, non-local, and their applications to physics, known at present, seem very promising. One would expect that beneath the Planck threshold there reigns a "noncommutative pregeometry", and only when crossing this threshold does the usual space-time geometry emerges.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
63 (#231,564)

6 months
1 (#1,042,085)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

The singular nature of spacetime.Vincent Lam - 2007 - Philosophy of Science 74 (5):712-723.
Algebraic self-duality as the "ultimate explanation".Michael Heller - 2004 - Foundations of Science 9 (4):369-385.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The philosophy of quantum mechanics.Max Jammer - 1974 - New York,: Wiley. Edited by Max Jammer.
Order out of Chaos.Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers - 1985 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 36 (3):352-354.
From Being to Becoming.I. Prigogine - 1982 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 33 (3):325-329.
The Science of Mechanics.E. B. T., E. Mach & T. J. McCormack - 1894 - Philosophical Review 3 (1):123.

View all 9 references / Add more references