Explanation,analyticity and constitutive principles in spacetime theories |
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Affiliation: | Department of Philosophy, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain;Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, 3151 Social Science Plaza A, University of California, Irvine, 92697-5100, United States;University of Notre Dame, United States;Oriel College, University of Oxford, UK;Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany;Dipartimento Energia, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy;School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS-2050, Johannesburg, South Africa |
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Abstract: | Much discussion was inspired by the publication of Harvey Brown's book Physical Relativity and the so-called dynamical approach to Special Relativity there advocated. At the center of the debate there is the question about the nature of the relation between spacetime and laws or, more specifically, between spacetime symmetries and the symmetries of laws. Originally, the relation was mainly assumed to be explanatory and the dispute expressed in terms of the arrow of explanation – whether it goes from spacetime (symmetries) to (symmetries of) laws or vice-versa. Not everybody agreed with a setting that involves leaving ontology out. In a recent turn, the relation has been claimed to be analytical or definitional. In this paper I intend to examine critically this claim and propose a way to generally understand the relation between spacetime symmetries and symmetries of laws as deriving from constitutive principles. |
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Keywords: | Special relativity Spacetime symmetry Dynamical symmetry Constitutive principles |
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