A partial defense of algebraic relationalism
History and Philosophy of Physics
2023-12-12 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Rings and Algebras
Quantum Physics
Abstract
I defend algebraicism, according to which physical fields can be understood in terms of their structural relations without reference to a spacetime manifold, as a genuine relationalist view against the conventional wisdom that it is equivalent to substantivalism, according to which spacetime exists fundamentally. I criticize the standard version of algebraicism that is considered equivalent to substantivalism. Furthermore, I present alternative examples of algebraicism that better implement relationalism with their conceptual advantages over substantivalism or its standard algebraic counterpart.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2309.03622,
title = {A partial defense of algebraic relationalism},
author = {Lu Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.03622},
year = {2023}
}