• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.273-292
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• 2009

According to historical commentators such as Newton and Einstein, bodily behaviors are causally explained by the geometrical structure of space-time whose existence analogous to that of material substance. This essay challenges this conventional wisdom of interpreting space-time geometry within both Newtonian and Einsteinian physics. By tracing recent historical studies on the interpretation of space-time geometry, I defends that space-time structure is a by-product of a more fundamental fact, the laws of motion. From this perspective, I will argue that the causal properties of space-time cannot provide an adequate account of the theory-change from Newtoninan to Einsteinian physics.