Description
Book SynopsisAre space and time fundamental features of our world or might they emerge from something else? The Foundation of Reality brings together metaphysicians and philosophers of physics working on space, time, and fundamentality to address this timely question. Recent developments in the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the understanding of certain approaches to quantum gravity have led philosophers of physics to propose that space and time might be emergent rather than fundamental. But such discussions are often conducted without engagement with those working on fundamentality and related issues in contemporary metaphysics. This book aims to correct this oversight. The diverse contributions to this volume address topics including the nature of fundamentality, the relation of space and time to quantum entanglement, and space and time in theories of quantum gravity. Only through consideration of a range of different approaches to the topic can we hope to get clear on the status of space and time in our contemporary understanding of physical reality.
Table of ContentsDavid Glick: Introduction The Metaphysics of the Fundamental 1: Ralf M. Bader: Fundamentality and Non-Symmetric Relations 2: Alastair Wilson: Classifying Dependencies 3: Matteo Morganti: Ontic Structuralism and Fundamentality 4: J. E. Wolff: Fundamental and Derived Quantities 5: Nora Berenstain: Privileged-Perspective Realism in the Quantum Multiverse Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality 6: Michael Esfeld: Super-Humeanism: The Canberra Plan for Physics 7: Jenann Ismael: Space-Time and Quantum Mechanics: A Discussion of Bohm's Fishtank 8: Alyssa Ney: Wave Function Realism in a Relativistic Setting 9: David Glick & George Darby: In Defense of the Metaphysics of Entanglement Spacetime Theories and Fundamentality 10: Richard Healey: On the Independent Emergence of Space-Time 11: Elena Castellani & Sebastian de Haro: Dualities, Emergence and Fundamentality 12: Tomasz Bigaj: Space-Time Substantivalism for a Structural Essentialist 13: Christian Wüthrich: When the Actual World is Not Even Possible Bibliography
