CANCELLED: Jeremy Butterfield (Cambridge): “On Reduction and Functionalism about Space and Time”

Unfortunately, due to the current COVID-19 situation this event will no longer take place as planned. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Abstract: Various programmes and results in the philosophy/foundations of spacetime theories illustrate points about reduction and functionalism in general philosophy of science. I will focus on some programmes and results about how the physics of matter contributes to determining, or even determines, or even explains, chrono-geometry. I will say something about most of the following examples: the Helmholtz-Lie theorem on free mobility implying constant curvature; and in the philosophical literature, Robb (1914), and Mundy (1983). I also hope to mention from the physics literature: Barbour and Bertotti (1982), Hojman, Kuchar and Teitelboim (1976); Dull, Schuller et al. (2012, 2018); and Gomes & Shyam (2016: 1608.08236 = J. Math. Phys. 57, 112503 (2016)).

This is joint work with Henrique Gomes, Cambridge