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Spacetime Substantivalism and Einstein's Cosmological Constant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

David J. Baker
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Abstract

I offer a novel argument for spacetime substantivalism: We should take the spacetime of general relativity to be a substance because of its active role in gravitational causation. As a clear example of this causal behavior I offer the cosmological constant, a term in the most general form of the Einstein field equations which causes free floating objects to accelerate apart. This acceleration cannot, I claim, be causally explained except by reference to spacetime itself.

Type
General Relativity
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 1299 - 1311
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Many thanks are due to Hans Halvorson, David Malament, Larry Sklar and Jessica Wilson for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks also to Simon DeDeo, John Earman and Jean Krisch for recommending useful sources.

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