Jaramillo, José Luis (Author)
Lam, Vincent (Author)
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Volume: 72
Issue: 4
Pages: 1111-1128
How precisely to understand and evaluate counterfactuals can be an intricate issue. The aim of this article is to examine a new set of difficulties for evaluating counterfactuals that arise in the context of the dynamical spacetimes described by the theory of general relativity (GR). The initial value formulation provides us with a methodology to pin down the specific combination of features of the theory at the origin of the difficulties, namely, non-linearity and certain non-local aspects (typically captured by ellipticity at the analytical level), in particular when combined with the global and/or quasi-local character of physical quantities in GR. Finally, we connect the philosophical question about counterfactuals with concrete applied physical issues in GR about extracting meaningful predictions by constructing appropriate initial data sets, leading us to question the very suitability of the Cauchy approach to fully account for the explanatory power of the theory.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Alessandra Buonanno;
Kip S. Thorne;
Harry Collins;
Don Howard;
Professor Diana K. Buchwald;
Tilman Sauer;
Barry C. Barish;
Daniel Kennefick;
Jürgen Renn;
Jed Z. Buchwald;
(2020)
Einstein Was Right: The Science and History of Gravitational Waves
(/isis/citation/CBB849681996/)
Article
Enrico Cinti;
Vincenzo Fano;
(2021)
Careful with those scissors, Eugene! Against the observational indistinguishability of spacetimes
(/isis/citation/CBB952356420/)
Book
Ferris, Timothy;
Hawking, Stephen;
Lightman, Alan;
Novikov, Igor;
Thorne, Kip;
(2002)
The Future of Spacetime
(/isis/citation/CBB000201366/)
Book
Dean Rickles;
(2020)
Covered with Deep Mist: The Development of Quantum Gravity
(/isis/citation/CBB843401824/)
Book
Govert Schilling;
(2017)
Ripples in Spacetime: Einstein, Gravitational Waves, and the Future of Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB583090654/)
Article
Lam, Vincent;
Esfeld, Michael;
(2012)
The Structural Metaphysics of Quantum Theory and General Relativity
(/isis/citation/CBB001252364/)
Article
Afriat, Alexander;
Caccese, Ermenegildo;
(2010)
The Relativity of Inertia and Reality of Nothing
(/isis/citation/CBB001024197/)
Book
Tavel, Morton;
(2002)
Contemporary Physics and the Limits of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB000201565/)
Book
DiSalle, Robert;
(2006)
Understanding Spacetime: The Philosophical Development of Physics from Newton to Einstein
(/isis/citation/CBB000930968/)
Article
Friebe, Cord;
(2012)
Twins' Paradox and Closed Timelike Curves: The Role of Proper Time and the Presentist View on Spacetime
(/isis/citation/CBB001252374/)
Article
Patrick M. Duerr;
Yemima Ben-Menahem;
(2022)
Why Reichenbach wasn't entirely wrong, and Poincaré was almost right, about geometric conventionalism
(/isis/citation/CBB678823767/)
Article
Dean Rickles;
(2018)
Geon Wheeler: from nuclear to spacetime physicist
(/isis/citation/CBB971617296/)
Article
Harvey R. Brown;
James Read;
(2016)
Clarifying Possible Misconceptions in the Foundations of General Relativity
(/isis/citation/CBB111561809/)
Article
Kristian González Barman;
(2023)
Accident Causation Models: The Good the Bad and the Ugly
(/isis/citation/CBB628884631/)
Article
Weart, Spencer;
(2006)
Trend-spotting: Physics in 1931 and Today
(/isis/citation/CBB001221274/)
Book
Ron Cowen;
(2019)
Gravity’s Century: From Einstein’s Eclipse to Images of Black Holes
(/isis/citation/CBB699668949/)
Article
Joshua Norton;
(2021)
Suppressing Spacetime Emergence
(/isis/citation/CBB068685265/)
Book
Callender, Craig;
Huggett, Nick;
(2001)
Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale: Contemporary Theories in Quantum Gravity
(/isis/citation/CBB000102413/)
Article
Mermin, N. David;
(2011)
Understanding Einstein's 1905 Derivation of E=mc2
(/isis/citation/CBB001024236/)
Article
Pesic, Peter;
(2013)
Helmholtz, Riemann, and the Sirens: Sound, Color, and the “Problem of Space”
(/isis/citation/CBB001320409/)
Be the first to comment!