München 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 7: Philosophy of Cosmology VII

AGPhil 7.2: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 20. März 2019, 17:15–17:45, HS 10

Which Worldlines Represent Possible Particle Histories? — •Samuel Fletcher — University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

The points of spacetime are often described as events. Events, in turn, are often described as idealized, arbitrarily small and fast possible processes, or the possible parts of histories of particles. This is because not all point-events in a spacetime model represent actual parts of particle histories. However, this raises questions about the modal status of these point-events, for typically a spacetime model represents a merely possible way for spacetime and a material history of states of affairs to be. What does it mean to be a merely possible but not actual point-event of a merely possible but not actual spacetime? How can such mere possibilities play a role

I explore two explications of this status, one in terms of point particles and another in terms of fields. The former encounters certain difficulties explaining the possibility of point particles traversing certain types of closed timelike curves, while embracing a pure field ontology avoids the issues entirely. Thus, maintaining a pure field ontology clarifies and simplifies the modal structure of spacetime theory.