English

Why the Weyl Tile Argument is Wrong

History and Philosophy of Physics 2023-09-06 v1 Metric Geometry Quantum Physics

Abstract

Weyl famously argued that if space were discrete, then Euclidean geometry could not hold even approximately. Since then, many philosophers have responded to this argument by advancing alternative accounts of discrete geometry that recover approximately Euclidean space. However, they have missed an importantly flawed assumption in Weyl's argument: physical geometry is determined by fundamental spacetime structures independently from dynamical laws. In this paper, I aim to show its falsity through two rigorous examples: random walks in statistical physics and quantum mechanics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.01968,
  title  = {Why the Weyl Tile Argument is Wrong},
  author = {Lu Chen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.01968},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Accepted August 08, 2022

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:12:46.328Z