Explaining Leibniz-equivalence as difference of non-inertial appearances: dis-solution of the Hole Argument and physical individuation of point-events

Details Explaining Leibniz-equivalence as difference of non-inertial appearances: dis-solution of the Hole Argument and physical individuation of point-events Explaining Leibniz-equivalence as difference of non-inertial appearances: dis-solution of the Hole Argument and physical individuation of point-events

2006-04-20

arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0604087v3

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

37 pages, talk at Oxford Conference on Spacetime (2004), to appear in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. Aff

Scientific paper

"The last remnant of physical objectivity of space-time" is disclosed in the case of a continuous family of spatially non-compact models of general relativity (GR). The {\it physical individuation} of point-events is furnished by the intrinsic degrees of freedom of the gravitational field, (viz, the {\it Dirac observables}) that represent - as it were - the {\it ontic} part of the metric field. The physical role of the {\it epistemic} part (viz. the {\it gauge} variables) is likewise clarified as emboding the unavoidable non-inertial aspects of GR. At the end the philosophical import of the {\it Hole Argument} is substantially weakened and in fact the Argument itself dis-solved, while a specific four-dimensional {\it holistic and structuralist} view of space-time, (called {\it point-structuralism}), emerges, including elements common to the tradition of both {\it substantivalism} and {\it relationism}. The observables of our models undergo real {\it temporal change}: this gives new evidence to the fact that statements like the {\it frozen-time} character of evolution, as other ontological claims about GR, are {\it model dependent}. \medskip Forthcoming in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

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