Causal Order, Temporal Order, and Becoming in Special Relativity

Ben‐Yami, Hanoch

doi:10.1007/s11245-014-9237-8

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…A particularly clear criticisms is in [18]. See also [19][20][21][22][23] and especially [24,25]. Putnam misinterprets Einstein's simultaneity and mixes relativistic and non relativistic concepts, making up a mess.…”

Section: Eternalism and Its Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

Rovelli

2019

Found Phys

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Is reality three-dimensional and becoming real (Presentism), or is reality four-dimensional and becoming illusory (Eternalism)? Both options raise difficulties. I argue that we do not need to be trapped by this dilemma. There is a third possibility: reality has a more complex temporal structure than either of these two naive options. Fundamental becoming is real, but local and unoriented. A notion of present is well defined, but only locally and in the context of approximations.

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Section: Eternalism and Its Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

Rovelli

2019

Found Phys

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“…Notice that the RP argument falls apart under both objections, but for different reasons [1]. According to the transitivity objection, the conclusion (iii) does not follow from the premises (i) and (ii).…”

Section: Premises and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The claim that distant simultaneity is a conventional notion (as opposed to a factual one) originated in the writings of Poincaré and Einstein, and was further developed by Reichenbach in the 1920s and by Grünbaum in the 1950s [19]. 1 The conventionality thesis can be summarised as follows. Consider two distant events, one at location A in space, the other at location B.…”

Section: The Conventionality Of Simultaneitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second objection, based on the conventionality of simultaneity, recently appeared in a paper by Ben-Yami [1]. According to the conventionality thesis, the temporal order for spacelike separated events is indeterminate (see §2).…”

Section: The Conventionality Objectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Weingard [46] and Petkov [26,27], for example, the conventionality thesis lends further support to Minkowski's claim. Ben-Yami [1] and Cohen [5] disagree, arguing for the opposite thesis, whereas Sklar [42] remains largely uncommitted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conventionality and Reality

Thyssen

2019

Found Phys

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The debate on the conventionality of simultaneity and the debate on the dimensionality of the world have been central in the philosophy of special relativity. The link between both debates however has rarely been explored. The purpose of this paper is to gauge what implications the former debate has for the latter. I show the situation to be much more subtle than was previously argued, and explain how the ontic versus epistemic distinction in the former debate impacts the latter. Despite claims to the contrary, I conclude that special relativity leaves the debate on the dimensionality of the world underdetermined.

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Eternalism and the problem of hyperplanes

Slavov

2022

Ratio

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Traditional eternalist arguments apply the relativity of simultaneity together with hyperplanes that connect spacelike separated events. For these arguments to work, one needs to assume both ontological simultaneity and the transitivity of reality. Consider three distant events, A, B and C. A and B are in fact simultaneous. B is in fact simultaneous with C. A and B are co-real, so are B and C. Therefore, A and C are co-real. All events exist tenselessly in spacetime. Whether something is past, present or future is dependent upon the perspective. Someone's 'now' can be some other's past or future: the past, the present and the future are equally real.

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Causal Order, Temporal Order, and Becoming in Special Relativity

Cited by 4 publications

References 12 publications

Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

Conventionality and Reality

Eternalism and the problem of hyperplanes

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