Dependence relations in general relativity

DOI10.1007/S13194-019-0265-5MaRDI QIDQ2289727zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Antonio Vassallo

Publication date 24 January 2020

Published in European Journal for Philosophy of Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.04496

zbMATH Keywords

spacetimestructural equation modelinggroundinggeneral relativitycausationlaws of naturegeodesic motiondependence relation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05)

Abstract: The paper discusses from a metaphysical standpoint the nature of the dependence relation underpinning the talk of mutual action between material and spatiotemporal structures in general relativity. It is shown that the standard analyses of dependence in terms of causation or grounding are ill-suited for the general relativistic context. Instead, a non-standard analytical framework in terms of structural equation modeling is exploited, which leads to the conclusion that the kind of dependence encoded in the Einstein field equations is a novel one.

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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1493045 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3421535 (Why is no real title available?)
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Cited in

(6)

• Does general relativity highlight necessary connections in nature?
• The landscape and the multiverse: what's the problem?
• The general-relativistic case for super-substantivalism
• A metaphysical reflection on the notion of background in modern spacetime physics
• A proposal for a metaphysics of self-subsisting structures. II: Quantum physics
• Gravitational interaction in the relational approach

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