La Covarianza General fue uno de los requisitos fundamentales que Einstein, en ciertos momentos, ... more La Covarianza General fue uno de los requisitos fundamentales que Einstein, en ciertos momentos, exigio de su nueva teoria de la gravedad: la Relatividad General. Al poco tiempo puso de manifiesto que dicho requisito es solo una condicion sobre la formulacion de la teoria y no implica la extension del principio de la relatividad, como Einstein penso originalmente. En la tesis discuto varias propuestas hechas en los ultimos anos para entender hasta que punto la Covarianza General pueda estar relacionada con un principio con contenido fisico, y avanzo algunas propuestas propias para encauzar el problema. Al final, defiendo que las distintas propuestas parecen apuntar a la idea de que dicho principio fisico radica en la peculiar interaccion entre espaciotiempo y materia que se da en la teoria de la Relatividad General; un principio generalizado de accion-reaccion.
La mecanica cuantica ha entrado de lleno en la cultura popular. Con gran frecuencia, sin embargo,... more La mecanica cuantica ha entrado de lleno en la cultura popular. Con gran frecuencia, sin embargo, lo ha hecho acompanada de mensajes poco claros e incluso fuertes distorsiones. El fenomeno puede relacionarse con la dificultad para interpretar la teoria; es decir, para reconciliar su formalismo con nuestras intuiciones naturales acerca del mundo fisico. ?Se debe la mala comunicacion de la mecanica cuantica a la falta de una interpretacion clara? ?U obedece mas bien a la insistencia que muchos ponen en buscar una interpretacion que, en el fondo, resulta innecesaria? Dicho debate guarda una estrecha conexion con dos posturas filosoficas: el realismo y el instrumentalismo. Una mirada atenta a la historia de la ciencia y al cambio que supuso la llegada de la mecanica cuantica revela por que resulta tan dificil renunciar por completo a cualquiera de ellas.
La teoria de cuerdas y otras areas de la fisica teorica moderna hacen predicciones que, al menos ... more La teoria de cuerdas y otras areas de la fisica teorica moderna hacen predicciones que, al menos con los medios tecnicos actuales, no pueden ponerse a prueba mediante ningun experimento. Esa situacion ha sido objeto de numerosas criticas. Para muchos fisicos y filosofos, exonerar a una teoria fisica del requisito de verificacion empirica supone abandonar el ambito de la ciencia. Por su parte, los partidarios de la teoria esgrimen a su favor algunas cualidades intrinsecas, como su enorme potencial explicativo o la falta de alternativas para formular una "teoria del todo". Una nueva propuesta surgida en el ambito de la filosofia de la ciencia ha defendido la legitimidad de esos argumentos no empiricos. Su validez implicaria la necesidad de redefinir el metodo cientifico.
Kant, partiendo de su distinción analítico-sintético, sostiene que los juicios de la matemática s... more Kant, partiendo de su distinción analítico-sintético, sostiene que los juicios de la matemática son sintéticos a priori y que en su justificación interviene un elemento extra-conceptual: la llamada intuición pura. Muchos autores después de Kant, en especial los cercanos al positivismo lógico, trataron de refinar la distinción kantiana e impugnar su postura relativa a la fundamentación de la matemática, defendiendo que sus axiomas han de ser entendidos como definiciones implícitas adoptadas convencionalmente y, en este sentido, justificados analíticamente sin la intervención de la intuición. El declive del positivismo lógico está relacionado, en parte, con la crítica demoledora, especialmente la de Quine, a la distinción analítico-sintético. Este artículo pretende mostrar que hay elementos en el tratamiento kantiano de la matemática como sintética a priori y en su referencia a la intuición que tienen relevancia para discusiones actuales en la filosofía del espacio-tiempo. Para ello se defiende una lectura particular de la distinción original, se argumenta que la crítica de Quine no tiene efecto contra la comprensión de algunos enunciados como constitutivos a priori y se apunta a que eso pasa por interpretar ciertas estructuras como análogas a la intuición kantiana.
THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime ... more The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directly connected to the question of how certain structures in physical theories acquire a spatiotemporal character. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on whi...
Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 2023
The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime ... more The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directly connected to the question of how certain structures in physical theories acquire a spatiotemporal char- acter. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand spacetime in physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observers have to experience.
The empirical significance of symmetries in physical theories has been the subject of considerabl... more The empirical significance of symmetries in physical theories has been the subject of considerable discussion in recent times. Although there seems to be no problem with the interpretation of global spacetime symmetries, there is no consensus in relation to the empirical import of gauge symmetries and local spacetime symmetries.
THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 2020
The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has receiv... more The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has received renewed attention in a recent discussion about the status of Minkowski spacetime in Special Relativity. In that context we find two extreme positions (either spacetime explains symmetries of laws or vice-versa) and a general assumption about the debate being mainly about explanation. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to argue that the ontological dimension of the debate cannot be ignored; second, to claim that taking ontology into account involves considering a third perspective on the relation between spacetime and symmetries of laws; one in which both terms would be somehow derived from common assumptions on the formulation of a given physical theory.
In General Relativity (GR), it has been claimed that inertia receives a dynamical explanation. Th... more In General Relativity (GR), it has been claimed that inertia receives a dynamical explanation. This is in contrast to the situation in other theories, such as Special Relativity, because the geodesic principle of GR can be derived from Einstein’s field equations. The claim can be challenged in different ways, all of which question whether the status of inertia in GR is physically different from its status in previous spacetime theories. In this paper I state the original argument for the claim precisely, discuss the different objections to it and then propose a formulation that avoids the problems the original claim encounters. My conclusion is that one can say meaningfully that inertia is dynamically explained in GR. There are two senses in which the derivation of geodetic motion can be said to provide a (more) dynamical explanation of inertia in GR: it holds for any material test body that is a source of the gravitational field; and it is derivable without assuming inertial structures that are fixed independently of matter.
It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Po... more It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Poincare invariant and that these invariances coincide, in a certain regime, with the symmetries of the spacetime metric is miraculous in general relativity (GR). In this paper I show that, in the context of GR, it is possible to account for these so-called miracles of relativity. The way to do so involves integrating the realisation that the gravitational field equations (the Einstein field equation in GR) impose constraints on the behaviour of matter in a novel interpretation of the equivalence principle, which dictates the determination of local inertial frames through gravitational interaction. This proposed explanation of the miracles can also deal with the problematic cases for attempts at explaining them in the context of the standard geometrical perspective on relativity theory.
Actas Del Vi Congreso De La Sociedad De Logica Metodologia Y Filosofia De La Ciencia En Espana 18 21 De Noviembre 2009 Isbn 978 84 370 7655 3 Pags 445 448, 2009
It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Po... more It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Poincaré invariant and that these invariances coincide, in a certain regime, with the symmetries of the spacetime metric is miraculous in general relativity (GR). In this paper I show that, in the context of GR, it is possible to account for these so-called miracles of relativity. The way to do so involves integrating the realisation that the gravitational field equations (the Einstein field equation in GR) impose constraints on the behaviour of matter in a novel interpretation of the equivalence principle, which dictates the determination of local inertial frames through gravitational interaction. This proposed explanation of the miracles can also deal with the problematic cases for attempts at explaining them in the context of the standard geometrical perspective on relativity theory.
The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has receiv... more The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has received renewed attention in a recent discussion about the status of Minkowski spacetime in Special Relativity. In that context we find two extreme positions (either spacetime explains symmetries of laws or vice-versa) and a general assumption about the debate being mainly about explanation. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to argue that the ontological dimension of the debate cannot be ignored; second, to claim that taking ontology into account involves considering a third perspective on the relation between spacetime and symmetries of laws; one in which both terms would be somehow derived from common assumptions on the formulation of a given physical theory. RESUMEN: La pregunta sobre la relación entre las simetrías epaciotemporales y las simetrías de las leyes ha recibido atención renovada en la reciente discusión sobre el estatus de la métrica de Minkowsi en la Teoría de la Relatividad Especial. En ese contexto, encontramos dos posiciones extremas (o bien las simetrías espaciotem-porales explican las simetrías de las leyes o viceversa) y el supuesto general de que el debate tiene que ver prima-riamente con la cuestión de la prioridad explicativa. El objetivo de este artículo es doble: primero, argumentar que la dimensión ontológica del debate no puede ser ignorada; segundo, defender que atender a esta dimensión implica considerar una tercera perspectiva sobre la relación entre espaciotiempo y simetrías, en la cual ambos términos se derivarían de los presupuestos implicados en la formulación de cierta teoría física.
La Covarianza General fue uno de los requisitos fundamentales que Einstein, en ciertos momentos, ... more La Covarianza General fue uno de los requisitos fundamentales que Einstein, en ciertos momentos, exigio de su nueva teoria de la gravedad: la Relatividad General. Al poco tiempo puso de manifiesto que dicho requisito es solo una condicion sobre la formulacion de la teoria y no implica la extension del principio de la relatividad, como Einstein penso originalmente. En la tesis discuto varias propuestas hechas en los ultimos anos para entender hasta que punto la Covarianza General pueda estar relacionada con un principio con contenido fisico, y avanzo algunas propuestas propias para encauzar el problema. Al final, defiendo que las distintas propuestas parecen apuntar a la idea de que dicho principio fisico radica en la peculiar interaccion entre espaciotiempo y materia que se da en la teoria de la Relatividad General; un principio generalizado de accion-reaccion.
La mecanica cuantica ha entrado de lleno en la cultura popular. Con gran frecuencia, sin embargo,... more La mecanica cuantica ha entrado de lleno en la cultura popular. Con gran frecuencia, sin embargo, lo ha hecho acompanada de mensajes poco claros e incluso fuertes distorsiones. El fenomeno puede relacionarse con la dificultad para interpretar la teoria; es decir, para reconciliar su formalismo con nuestras intuiciones naturales acerca del mundo fisico. ?Se debe la mala comunicacion de la mecanica cuantica a la falta de una interpretacion clara? ?U obedece mas bien a la insistencia que muchos ponen en buscar una interpretacion que, en el fondo, resulta innecesaria? Dicho debate guarda una estrecha conexion con dos posturas filosoficas: el realismo y el instrumentalismo. Una mirada atenta a la historia de la ciencia y al cambio que supuso la llegada de la mecanica cuantica revela por que resulta tan dificil renunciar por completo a cualquiera de ellas.
La teoria de cuerdas y otras areas de la fisica teorica moderna hacen predicciones que, al menos ... more La teoria de cuerdas y otras areas de la fisica teorica moderna hacen predicciones que, al menos con los medios tecnicos actuales, no pueden ponerse a prueba mediante ningun experimento. Esa situacion ha sido objeto de numerosas criticas. Para muchos fisicos y filosofos, exonerar a una teoria fisica del requisito de verificacion empirica supone abandonar el ambito de la ciencia. Por su parte, los partidarios de la teoria esgrimen a su favor algunas cualidades intrinsecas, como su enorme potencial explicativo o la falta de alternativas para formular una "teoria del todo". Una nueva propuesta surgida en el ambito de la filosofia de la ciencia ha defendido la legitimidad de esos argumentos no empiricos. Su validez implicaria la necesidad de redefinir el metodo cientifico.
Kant, partiendo de su distinción analítico-sintético, sostiene que los juicios de la matemática s... more Kant, partiendo de su distinción analítico-sintético, sostiene que los juicios de la matemática son sintéticos a priori y que en su justificación interviene un elemento extra-conceptual: la llamada intuición pura. Muchos autores después de Kant, en especial los cercanos al positivismo lógico, trataron de refinar la distinción kantiana e impugnar su postura relativa a la fundamentación de la matemática, defendiendo que sus axiomas han de ser entendidos como definiciones implícitas adoptadas convencionalmente y, en este sentido, justificados analíticamente sin la intervención de la intuición. El declive del positivismo lógico está relacionado, en parte, con la crítica demoledora, especialmente la de Quine, a la distinción analítico-sintético. Este artículo pretende mostrar que hay elementos en el tratamiento kantiano de la matemática como sintética a priori y en su referencia a la intuición que tienen relevancia para discusiones actuales en la filosofía del espacio-tiempo. Para ello se defiende una lectura particular de la distinción original, se argumenta que la crítica de Quine no tiene efecto contra la comprensión de algunos enunciados como constitutivos a priori y se apunta a que eso pasa por interpretar ciertas estructuras como análogas a la intuición kantiana.
THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime ... more The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directly connected to the question of how certain structures in physical theories acquire a spatiotemporal character. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on whi...
Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 2023
The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime ... more The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directly connected to the question of how certain structures in physical theories acquire a spatiotemporal char- acter. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand spacetime in physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observers have to experience.
The empirical significance of symmetries in physical theories has been the subject of considerabl... more The empirical significance of symmetries in physical theories has been the subject of considerable discussion in recent times. Although there seems to be no problem with the interpretation of global spacetime symmetries, there is no consensus in relation to the empirical import of gauge symmetries and local spacetime symmetries.
THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 2020
The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has receiv... more The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has received renewed attention in a recent discussion about the status of Minkowski spacetime in Special Relativity. In that context we find two extreme positions (either spacetime explains symmetries of laws or vice-versa) and a general assumption about the debate being mainly about explanation. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to argue that the ontological dimension of the debate cannot be ignored; second, to claim that taking ontology into account involves considering a third perspective on the relation between spacetime and symmetries of laws; one in which both terms would be somehow derived from common assumptions on the formulation of a given physical theory.
In General Relativity (GR), it has been claimed that inertia receives a dynamical explanation. Th... more In General Relativity (GR), it has been claimed that inertia receives a dynamical explanation. This is in contrast to the situation in other theories, such as Special Relativity, because the geodesic principle of GR can be derived from Einstein’s field equations. The claim can be challenged in different ways, all of which question whether the status of inertia in GR is physically different from its status in previous spacetime theories. In this paper I state the original argument for the claim precisely, discuss the different objections to it and then propose a formulation that avoids the problems the original claim encounters. My conclusion is that one can say meaningfully that inertia is dynamically explained in GR. There are two senses in which the derivation of geodetic motion can be said to provide a (more) dynamical explanation of inertia in GR: it holds for any material test body that is a source of the gravitational field; and it is derivable without assuming inertial structures that are fixed independently of matter.
It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Po... more It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Poincare invariant and that these invariances coincide, in a certain regime, with the symmetries of the spacetime metric is miraculous in general relativity (GR). In this paper I show that, in the context of GR, it is possible to account for these so-called miracles of relativity. The way to do so involves integrating the realisation that the gravitational field equations (the Einstein field equation in GR) impose constraints on the behaviour of matter in a novel interpretation of the equivalence principle, which dictates the determination of local inertial frames through gravitational interaction. This proposed explanation of the miracles can also deal with the problematic cases for attempts at explaining them in the context of the standard geometrical perspective on relativity theory.
Actas Del Vi Congreso De La Sociedad De Logica Metodologia Y Filosofia De La Ciencia En Espana 18 21 De Noviembre 2009 Isbn 978 84 370 7655 3 Pags 445 448, 2009
It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Po... more It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Poincaré invariant and that these invariances coincide, in a certain regime, with the symmetries of the spacetime metric is miraculous in general relativity (GR). In this paper I show that, in the context of GR, it is possible to account for these so-called miracles of relativity. The way to do so involves integrating the realisation that the gravitational field equations (the Einstein field equation in GR) impose constraints on the behaviour of matter in a novel interpretation of the equivalence principle, which dictates the determination of local inertial frames through gravitational interaction. This proposed explanation of the miracles can also deal with the problematic cases for attempts at explaining them in the context of the standard geometrical perspective on relativity theory.
The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has receiv... more The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has received renewed attention in a recent discussion about the status of Minkowski spacetime in Special Relativity. In that context we find two extreme positions (either spacetime explains symmetries of laws or vice-versa) and a general assumption about the debate being mainly about explanation. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to argue that the ontological dimension of the debate cannot be ignored; second, to claim that taking ontology into account involves considering a third perspective on the relation between spacetime and symmetries of laws; one in which both terms would be somehow derived from common assumptions on the formulation of a given physical theory. RESUMEN: La pregunta sobre la relación entre las simetrías epaciotemporales y las simetrías de las leyes ha recibido atención renovada en la reciente discusión sobre el estatus de la métrica de Minkowsi en la Teoría de la Relatividad Especial. En ese contexto, encontramos dos posiciones extremas (o bien las simetrías espaciotem-porales explican las simetrías de las leyes o viceversa) y el supuesto general de que el debate tiene que ver prima-riamente con la cuestión de la prioridad explicativa. El objetivo de este artículo es doble: primero, argumentar que la dimensión ontológica del debate no puede ser ignorada; segundo, defender que atender a esta dimensión implica considerar una tercera perspectiva sobre la relación entre espaciotiempo y simetrías, en la cual ambos términos se derivarían de los presupuestos implicados en la formulación de cierta teoría física.
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acter. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization
of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand spacetime in physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observers have to experience.
acter. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization
of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand spacetime in physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observers have to experience.