Philosophical Studies 173 (8):2151-2172 (2016)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
I will introduce and motivate eliminativist super-relationism. This is the conjunction of relationism about spacetime and eliminativism about material objects. According to the view, the universe is a big collection of spatio-temporal relations and natural properties, and no substance (material or spatio-temporal) exists in it. The view is original since eliminativism about material objects, when understood as including not only ordinary objects like tables or chairs but also physical particles, is generally taken to imply substantivalism about spacetime: if properties are directly instantiated by spacetime without the mediation of material objects, then, surely, spacetime has to be a substance. After introducing briefly the two debates about spacetime (§1) and material objects (§2), I will present Schaffer's super-substantivalism (§3), the conjunction of substantivalism about spacetime and eliminativism about material objects at the fundamental level. I shall then expose and discuss the assumption from which the implication from eliminativism to substantivalism is drawn, and discuss the compatibility of eliminativism with relationism: if spacetime is not a substance, and if material objects are not real, how are we to understand the instantiation of properties (§4)? And what are the relata of spatio-temporal relations (§5)? I then show that each argument in favor of super-substantivalism offered by Schaffer also holds for super-relationism (§6) and examine several metaphysical consequences of the view (§7). I conclude that both super-substantivalism and super-relationism are compatible with Schaffer's priority monism (§8).
|
Keywords | spacetime material objects eliminativism substantivalism relationism super-substantivalism super-relationism priority monism |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2016 |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s11098-015-0602-2 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Universals and Scientific Realism: A Theory of Universals.David Malet Armstrong - 1978 - Cambridge University Press.
View all 36 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Spacetime Emergence in Quantum Gravity: Functionalism and the Hard Problem.Baptiste Le Bihan - 2021 - Synthese 199 (2):371–393.
Space Emergence in Contemporary Physics: Why We Do Not Need Fundamentality, Layers of Reality and Emergence.Baptiste Le Bihan - 2018 - Disputatio 10 (49):71-95.
The No Self View and the Meaning of Life.Baptiste Le Bihan - 2019 - Philosophy East and West 69 (2):419-438.
View all 18 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Is Structural Spacetime Realism Relationism in Disguise? The Supererogatory Nature of the Substantivalism/Relationism Debate.Mauro Dorato - unknown
Substantivalism, Relationism, and Structural Spacetime Realism.Mauro Dorato - 2000 - Foundations of Physics 30 (10):1605-1628.
Buckets of Water and Waves of Space: Why Spacetime is Probably a Substance.Tim Maudlin - 1993 - Philosophy of Science 60 (2):183-203.
Relationism and Possible Worlds.Jeremy Butterfield - 1984 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 35 (2):101-113.
Space, Time, and Samuel Alexander.Emily Thomas - 2013 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (3):549-569.
The Hole Argument of the Substantivalism-Relationism Debate.Keiko Ichiye - 1996 - Dissertation, Indiana University
Spacetime as a Fundamental and Inalienable Structure of Fields.Y. S. - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (2):205-215.
Spacetime Substantivalism and Einstein’s Cosmological Constant.David J. Baker - 2005 - Philosophy of Science 72 (5):1299-1311.
Rings, Holes and Substantivalism: On the Program of Leibniz Algebras.Robert Rynasiewicz - 1992 - Philosophy of Science 59 (4):572-589.
Building Enduring Objects Out of Spacetime.Cody Gilmore - 2014 - In Claudio Calosi & Pierluigi Graziani (eds.), Mereology and the Sciences: Parts and Wholes in the Contemporary Scientific Context. Springer. pp. 5-34.
The Case for Substantivalism.Carolyn Jane Brighouse - 1996 - Dissertation, University of Southern California
Spacetime, Ontology, and Structural Realism.Edward Slowik - 2005 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 19 (2):147 – 166.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2015-11-10
Total views
1,021 ( #5,933 of 2,499,265 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
30 ( #29,286 of 2,499,265 )
2015-11-10
Total views
1,021 ( #5,933 of 2,499,265 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
30 ( #29,286 of 2,499,265 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads