Space, Time, and Spacetime

Lawrence Sklar

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9780520340701
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

In this book, Lawrence Sklar demonstrates the interdependence of science and philosophy by examining a number of crucial problems on the nature of space and time—problems that require for their resolution the resources of philosophy and of physics. The overall issues explored are our knowledge of the geometry of the world, the existence of spacetime as an entity over and above the material objects of the world, the relation between temporal order and causal order, and the problem of the direction of time. Without neglecting the most subtle philosophical points or the most advanced contributions of contemporary physics, the author has taken pains to make his explorations intelligible to the reader with no advanced training in physics, mathematics, or philosophy. The arguments are set forth step-by-step, beginning from first principles; and the philosophical discussions are supplemented in detail by nontechnical expositions of crucial features of physical theories. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.
In this book, Lawrence Sklar demonstrates the interdependence of science and philosophy by examining a number of crucial problems on the nature of space and time—problems that require for their resolution the resources of philosophy and of physics.
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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS 1
• BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I
• SECTION A SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS
• SECTION B AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF GEOMETRY
• SECTION C SPACE AND TIME VERSUS SPACETIME— A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT
• SECTION D THE PHYSICAL POSSIBILITY OF A NON-EUCLIDEAN WORLD
• SECTION E SOME OLDER EPISTEMOLOGICAL VIEWS ABOUT GEOMETRY
• SECTION F THE CONVENTIONALIST THESIS AND ITS FIRST CRITICS
• SECTION G SOME VARYING VIEWS ON CONVENTIONALISM
• SECTION H THE FRAMEWORK OF PHILOSOPHICAL PERPLEXITY
• BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER 11
• SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS
• SECTION B THE TRADITIONAL ONTOLOGICAL DISPUTE
• SECTION C NEWTON AND HIS CRITICS
• SECTION D THE EVOLUTION OF PHYSICS AND THE PROBLEM OF SUBSTANTIVAL SPACE
• SECTION E GENERAL RELATIVITY AND THE PROBLEM OF SUBSTANTIVAL SPACETIME
• SECTION F ABSOLUTE MOTION AND SUBSTANTIVAL SPACETIME—A PHILOSOPHICAL CRITIQUE
• BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III
• SECTION A PRELIMINARY REMARKS
• SECTION B ORIGINS AND FEATURES OF THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY
• SECTION C CAUSAL ORDER AND TEMPORAL ORDER IN SPECIAL RELATIVITY
• SECTION D CAUSAL ORDER AND TEMPORAL ORDER IN GENERAL RELATIVITY
• SECTION E THE CAUSAL THEORY OF TIME
• BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV
• SECTION A THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND
• SECTION B LAWLIKE SYMMETRIES IN PHYSICS
• SECTION C SOME DE FACTO IRREVERSIBLE PROCESSES
• SECTION D ASPECTS OF STATISTICAL PHYSICS
• SECTION E TIME ORIENTABILITY AND THE DIRECTION OF TIME
• SECTION F ASYMMETRY IN TIME AND THE ASYMMETRY OF TIME
• BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER V
• EPILOGUE
• INDEX