Relationism and possible worlds

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 35 (2):101-113 (1984)
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Abstract

Relationism claims that our physical theory does not commit us to spacetime points. I consider how a relationist might rewrite physical theories without referring to spacetime points, by appealing to possible objects and possible configurations of objects. I argue that a number of difficulties confront this project. I also argue that a relationist need not be Machian in the sense of claiming that objects' spatiotemporal relations determine whether any object is accelerating.

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Jeremy Butterfield
Cambridge University

Citations of this work

On the Existence of Spacetime Structure.Erik Curiel - 2014 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science:axw014.
Relational Time.Matteo Morganti - 2015 - In Tomasz Bigaj & Christian Wüthrich (eds.), Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics. Boston: Brill | Rodopi. pp. 215-236.
Reference, modality, and relational time.J. A. Cover - 1993 - Philosophical Studies 70 (3):251 - 277.

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