Salimkhani K. The Non-Fundamentality of Spacetime 2023

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Salimkhani K. The Non-Fundamentality of Spacetime 2023

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Textbook in PDF format This book argues that our current best theories of fundamental physics are best interpreted as positing spacetime as non-fundamental. It is written in accessible language and largely avoids mathematical technicalities by instead focusing on the key metaphysical and foundational lessons for the fundamentality of spacetime. According to orthodoxy, spacetime and spatiotemporal properties are regarded as fundamental structures of our world. Spacetime fundamentalism, however, faces challenges from speculative theories of quantum gravity roughly speaking, the project of applying the lessons of quantum mechanics to gravitation and spacetime. This book demonstrates that the non-fundamentality of spacetime does not rely on speculative physics alone. Rather, one can give an interpretation of general relativity that supports some form of spacetime non-fundamentalism. The author makes the case for spacetime non-fundamentalism in three steps. First, he confronts the standard geometrical interpretation of general relativity with Brown and Pooley's dynamical approach to relativity theory. Second, he considers an alternative derivation of the Einstein field equations, namely the classical spin-2 approach, and argues that it paves the way for a refined dynamical approach to general relativity. Finally, he argues that particle physics can serve as a continuity condition for the metaphysics of spacetime. The Non-Fundamentality of Spacetime will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. Acknowledgements Introduction Fundamentality What Is Fundamentality? Fundamentality of Spacetime Spacetime in Relativity Theory Brief Recap of Relativity Theory Spacetime Fundamentalism in Relativity Theory Geometrisation of Gravity The Field View The Dynamical Approach The Problem of Pregeometry Fundamentality of Spacetime Revisited Classical “Spin-2” Gravity Reviewing Classical Spin-2 Theory The Dynamical Approach to Classical Spin-2 Gravity Fundamentality of Spacetime Revisited Spacetime in Quantum Gravity The Quest for a Theory of Quantum Gravity The Spin-2 Approach to Quantum Gravity Fundamentality of Spacetime Revisited Unification Explaining Unification in Physics Constraining Metaphysical Inferences Spacetime and Unification Conclusion Appendix: More Detailed Calculations Index