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Spacetime and Conventionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Abstract

Salmon, following Reichenbach and others, maintained that distant simultaneity was conventional in a special relativistic world in a way in which this was not so in prerelativistic spacetime. This paper surveys and criticizes a number of proposals to unpack this claim. It goes on to argue that if the claim has validity, it rests upon differing facts about epistemic accessibility of temporal relations in the different spacetimes, and not directly upon any facts about differing causal structures in these worlds.

Type
Wesley C. Salmon 1925-2001: A Symposium Honoring His Contributions to the Philosophy of Science
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant. No. 0211011. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.