James Read (Oxford): “Geometry and conspiracy in relativity theory”

Abstract: I discuss the debate between advocates of dynamical versus geometrical approaches to spacetime theories, in the context of both special and general relativity. By distinguishing between what I call ‘individual’ versus ‘modal’ constraints, I argue—pace e.g. Brown—that there exists available a perfectly viable form of the geometrical approach.

James Read is a DPhil candidate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford.