Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T11:33:55.158Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spacetime Substantivalism and Einstein's Cosmological Constant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

David J. Baker
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I offer a novel argument for spacetime substantivalism: We should take the spacetime of general relativity to be a substance because of its active role in gravitational causation. As a clear example of this causal behavior I offer the cosmological constant, a term in the most general form of the Einstein field equations which causes free floating objects to accelerate apart. This acceleration cannot, I claim, be causally explained except by reference to spacetime itself.

Type
General Relativity
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 1299 - 1311
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

Many thanks are due to Hans Halvorson, David Malament, Larry Sklar and Jessica Wilson for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks also to Simon DeDeo, John Earman and Jean Krisch for recommending useful sources.

References

Cohn, J. D. (1998), “Living with Lambda”, Living with Lambda 259:213–234.Google Scholar
Earman, John (2001), “Lambda: The Constant That Refuses to Die”, Lambda: The Constant That Refuses to Die 55:189–220.Google Scholar
Earman, J., and Norton, J. (1987), “What Price Spacetime Substantivalism? The Hole Story”, What Price Spacetime Substantivalism? The Hole Story 38:515–525.Google Scholar
Einstein, Albert ([1917] 1986), “Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory of Relativity”, in Bernstein, J. and Feinberg, G. (eds.), Cosmological Constants. New York: Columbia University Press, 16–23.Google Scholar
Hoefer, Carl (1996), “The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism”, The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism 93:5–27.Google Scholar
Hoefer, Carl (1998), “Absolute versus Relational Spacetime: For Better or Worse, the Debate Goes On”, Absolute versus Relational Spacetime: For Better or Worse, the Debate Goes On 49:451–467.Google Scholar
Hoefer, Carl (2000), “Energy Conservation in GTR”, Energy Conservation in GTR 31:187–199.Google Scholar
Maudlin, Tim (1988), “The Essence of Space and Time”, in A. Fine and J. Leplin (eds.), PSA 1988: Proceedings of the 1982 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, 82–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellor, Hugh (1980), “On Things and Causes in Spacetime”, On Things and Causes in Spacetime 31:282–288.Google Scholar
Rindler, Wolfgang (2001), Relativity: Special, General and Cosmological. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rynasiewicz, Robert (1996), “Absolute versus Relational Space-Time: An Outmoded Debate?”, Absolute versus Relational Space-Time: An Outmoded Debate? 93:279–306.Google Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1976), Space, Time, and Spacetime. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, Paul (1991), “Substance, Relations, and Arguments about the Nature of Space-Time”, Substance, Relations, and Arguments about the Nature of Space-Time 100:353–397.Google Scholar