Space, Time, and Geometry / Edition 1

by Patrick Suppes

Overview

The articles in this volume have been stimulated in two different ways. More than two years ago the editor of Synthese, laakko Hintikka, an­ nounced a special issue devoted to space and time, and articles were solicited. Part of the reason for that announcement was also the second source of papers. Several years ago I gave a seminar on special relativity at Stanford, and the papers by Domotor, Harrison, Hudgin, Latzer and myself partially arose out of discussion in that seminar. All of the papers except those of Griinbaum, Fine, the second paper of Friedman, and the paper of Adams appeared in a special double issue of Synthese (24 (1972), Nos. 1-2). I am pleased to have been able to add the four additional papers mentioned in making the special issue a volume in the Synthese Library. Of these four additional articles, only the one by Fine has pre­ viously appeared in print (Synthese 22 (1971),448—481); its relevance to the present volume is apparent. In preparing the papers for publication and in carrying out the various editorIal chores of such a task, I am very much indebted to Mrs. Lillian O'Toole for her extensive assistance. INTRODUCTION The philosophy of space and time has been of permanent importance in philosophy, and most of the major historical figures in philosophy, such as Aristotle, Descartes and Kant, have had a good deal to say about the nature of space and time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789027703866
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	12/31/1973
Series:	Synthese Library , #56
Edition description:	1973
Pages:	428
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 11.69(h) x 0.24(d)

Table of Contents

I / Causality and Time.- Causal Models and Space-Time Geometries.- Temporally Symmetric Causal Relations in Minkowski Space-Time.- Notes on the Causal Theory of Time.- Earman on the Causal Theory of Time.- Kant’s Formulation of the Laws of Motion.- On Travelling Backward in Time.- The Flow of Time.- II / Geometry of Space and Time.- Poincaré’s Philosophy of Space.- On the Structure of Space-Time.- Topology, Cosmology and Convention.- Grünbaum on the Conventionality of Geometry.- Reflections on a Relational Theory of Space.- The Ontology of the Curvature of Empty Space in the Geometrodynamics of Clifford and Wheeler.- Relativity Principles, Absolute Objects and Symmetry Groups.- Nondirected Light Signals and the Structure of Time.- Coordinate-Free Relativity.- Some Open Problems in the Philosophy of Space and Time.- The Naive Conception of the Topology of the Surface of a Body.