Journal for History of Mathematics (한국수학사학회지)

The Korean Society for History of Mathematics (한국수학사학회)
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Space-Time Symmetry and Space-Time Ontology

시공간 대칭성과 시공간 존재론

  • Received : 2015.07.17
  • Accepted : 2015.08.25
  • Published : 2015.08.31
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Abstract

In spite of various attempts to characterize the ontological status of space-time, Newtonian substantivalism and Leibnizian relationism, what is really at issue in the controversy between the two parties is by no means clear. This essay argues that from the perspective of space-time symmetries, classical space-time can be unambiguously classified as substantival space-time and relational space-time. The symmetries of space-time theories distinguish the invariant geometric relationships between events. The essential difference between the two space-times stems from whether or not there exists the affine structure that distinguishes the inertial trajectories of a given body.

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References

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