Related papers: Relationalism
Relationalism -- along the lines developed by Barbour and collaborators in the past 3 decades -- can be considered an advance with 1/4 of the facets of the canonical approach's Problem of Time as identified by Isham and Kuchar. Indeed,…
In a purely relational theory there exists a tension between the relational character of the theory and the existence of quantities like distance and duration. We review this issue in the context of the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence. We…
In this paper we investigate the history of relationalism and its present use in some interpretations of quantum mechanics. In the first part of this article we will provide a conceptual analysis of the relation between substantivalism,…
The paper presents a program to construct a non-relativistic relational Bohmian theory, that is, a theory of $N$ moving point-like particles that dispenses with space and time as fundamental background structures. The relational program…
Relational particle dynamics include the dynamics of pure shape and cases in which absolute scale or absolute rotation are additionally meaningful. These are interesting as regards the absolute versus relative motion debate as well as…
Absolute space is eliminated from the body of mechanics by gauging translations and rotations in the Lagrangian of a classical system. The procedure implies the addition of compensating terms to the kinetic energy, in such a way that the…
In this paper I argue that the fundamental aspect of our notion of time is that it defines an order relation, be it a total order relation between configurations of the world or just a partial order relation between events. This position is…
This article contains a local solution to the notorious Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity at the conceptual level and which is actually realizable for the relational triangle. The Problem of Time is that `time' in GR and `time' in ordinary…
An ontology of Leibnizian relationalism, consisting in distance relations among sparse matter points and their change only, is well recognized as a serious option in the context of classical mechanics. In this paper, we investigate how this…
After reviewing various interpretations of structural realism, I adopt here a definition that allows both relations between things that are already individuated (which I call ``relations between things'') and relations that individuate…
We introduce relationalism and discuss how it is useful for interpreting probability theory and quantum mechanics. This paper is written in relatively lay terms and presumes no prior knowledge of quantum theory.
Mach's principle fits into the wider "relational principle", advocating that not only inertia, but also space and time emerge from the interaction of matter. Concepts of a Machian/relational theory are proposed, where inertia and energy are…
I begin by examining the question of the quantum limits of knowledge by briefly presenting the constraints of the theory that derive from its mathematical structure (in particular the no-go theorems formulated by von Neumann and Kochen and…
I lay out the problem of time facets as arising piecemeal from a number of aspects of background independence. Almost all of these already have simpler classical counterparts. This approach can be viewed as a facet by facet completion of…
The relativistic conception of space and time is challenged by the quantum nature of physical observables. It has been known for a long time that Poincar\'e symmetry of field theory can be extended to the larger conformal symmetry. We use…
This paper elaborates on relationalism about space and time as motivated by a minimalist ontology of the physical world: there are only matter points that are individuated by the distance relations among them, with these relations changing.…
Some authors in the quantum gravity community endorse, explicitly or implicitly, a radical relationalist view of time which states that the ordinal structure of time is not needed even in our classical theories, especially in general…
Classical non-relativistic mechanics in a general setting of time-dependent transformations and reference frame changes is formulated in the terms of fibre bundles over the time-axis R. Connections on fibre bundles are the main ingredient…
We present a deductive theory of space-time which is realistic, objective, and relational. It is realistic because it assumes the existence of physical things endowed with concrete properties. It is objective because it can be formulated…
A suite of relational notions of shape are presented at the level of configuration space geometry, with corresponding new theories of shape mechanics and shape statistics. These further generalize two quite well known examples: --1)…