English

Two Dogmas of Dynamicism

History and Philosophy of Physics 2020-09-18 v2

Abstract

I critically discuss two dogmas of the "dynamical approach" to spacetime in general relativity, as advanced by Harvey Brown [Physical Relativity (2005) Oxford:Oxford University Press] and collaborators. The first dogma is that positing a "spacetime geometry" has no implications for the behavior of matter. The second dogma is that postulating the "Strong Equivalence Principle" suffices to ensure that matter is "adapted" to spacetime geometry. I conclude by discussing "spacetime functionalism". The discussion is presented in reaction to and sympathy with recent work by James Read ["Explanation, geometry, and conspiracy in relativity theory"(20??) Thinking about Spacetime. Boston: Birkauser].

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2006.11400,
  title  = {Two Dogmas of Dynamicism},
  author = {James Owen Weatherall},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.11400},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

33 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T16:28:41.452Z