Related papers: Schopenhauer on Space, Time, Causality and Matter:…
Two definitions of Mach's principle are proposed. Both are related to gauge theory, are universal in scope and amount to formulations of causality that take into account the relational nature of position, time, and size. One of them leads…
In a way similar to classical mechanics where we have the concept of inertial time as expressed in the motions of bodies, in the (special) theory of relativity we can regard the inertial time as the only notion of time at play. The inertial…
The notions of time and causality are revisited, as well as the A- and B-theory of time, in order to determine which theory of time is most compatible with relativistic spacetimes. By considering orientable spacetimes and defining a…
With a view to the results discussed in the first two parts of this paper, the concept of time is revisited oncemore and chosen as an example in order to demonstrate the meaning of fundamental in both physical and philosophical terms. It is…
In this paper we consider generalization of classical and quantum mechanics that directly follows from the causality principle and topology of a system state space. In generalized mechanics, the Hamiltonian/Schrodinger equations remain the…
We consider Hilbert's problem of the axioms of Physics at a qualitative or conceptual level. This issue is more pressing than ever as we seek to understand how both General Relativity and quantum theory could emerge from some deeper theory…
Research in quantum gravity strongly suggests that our world in not fundamentally spatiotemporal, but that spacetime may only emerge in some sense from a non-spatiotemporal structure, as this paper illustrates in the case of causal set…
This is a chapter for an upcoming book, "Space, Time, and the Limits of Human Understanding", edited by Shyam Wuppuluri and Giancarlo Ghirardi. I first present the classical picture of flat space and ever-flowing time, as generally accepted…
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…
In 1755, Kant published his General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, in which he presented his hypothesis on the formation of the solar system, known as the primitive nebula hypothesis. This original theory of the heavens was…
In the framework of the field theory it is shown that a time (viewed as a scalar temporal field) is an internal property of the physical system, which defines its causal structure and evolution. A new concept of internal time allows to…
We recount the successful long career of classical physics, from Newton to Einstein, which was based on the philosophy of scientific realism. Special emphasis is given to the changing status and number of ontological entitities and…
How special (or not) is the epoch we are living in? What is the appropriate reference class for embedding the observations made at the present time? How probable -- or else -- is anything we observe in the fulness of time? Contemporary…
Recently, it is shown that, the quantum effects of matter are well described by the conformal degree of freedom of the space-time metric. On the other hand, it is a wellknown fact that according to Einstein's gravity theory, gravity and…
In the standard cosmological theory one uses the Einstein concepts of space and time as were originally introduced for the special theory of relativity and the general relativity theory. According to this approach all physical quantities…
A tradition handed down among physicists maintains that classical physics is a perfectly deterministic theory capable of predicting the future with absolute certainty, independently of any interpretations. It also tells that it was quantum…
In the light of some recent results, it is argued that usual concepts of causality and locality are approximations valid at scales greater than the Compton wavelength and corresponding time scales. It follows that the "spooky" non-locality…
Newton seems to have stated a quantitative relationship between the position of a body in relative space and the position of the body in absolute space in the first scholium of his Principia. We show that if this suspected relationship is…
This is a contribution to a book on quantum gravity and philosophy. I discuss nature and origin of the problem of quantum gravity. I examine the knowledge that may guide us in addressing this problem, and the reliability of such knowledge.…
Norbert Wiener and J.B.S. Haldane suggested during the early thirties that the profound changes in our conception of matter entailed by quantum theory opens the way for our thoughts, and other experiential or mind-like qualities, to play a…