What metaphysical background structure, if any, does nature make use of in facilitating the dynamical behavior of matter? One might attempt to answer this question via a straightforward metaphysical reading of our best physical theories. If taken literally, our best theories say that there exist things such as space, time, and laws of nature which govern the world's events and which give them a stage upon which to happen. But do we have to read our ontological commitments off of our theories so literally? Not every aspect of our best theories is taken so literally. For instance, given a theory described in one coordinate system, we have the mathematical tools to easily redescribe it in a wide variety of alternate coordinate systems (or even using no coordinates whatsoever). This strong capacity for coordinate redescription leads us to believe that coordinate systems are merely a representational artifact which we project onto the world as a means of organizing and codifying its regularities.
But what if we could also redescribe our best physical theories using different laws of nature or as being set on different spacetime manifolds (e.g,. a Mobius strip vs a Euclidean plane)? What if we could do this just as easily as we can switch between different coordinate systems? In some recent work [1-3], I have shown that we can! In this talk I will argue that given this strong capacity for nomological and spatiotemporal redescription, we ought to adopt a (roughly) Humean view of the laws of nature and a (roughly) Kantian view of space and time. The laws of nature which appear in our best physical theories do not correspond to any active governing force out there in the world; Instead, the laws have the metaphysical relevance that they do only because they are a particularly nice way of systematizing the dynamical behavior of matter. Similarly, the spacetime manifold which appears in our best physical theories does not correspond to any sort of stage upon which the world's drama plays out; Instead, space and time have the metaphysical relevance that they do only because they are particularly nice ways of organizing and codifying the dynamical behavior of matter.
[1] Grimmer D. (2023a). Introducing the ISE Method: A Powerful New Tool for Topological Redescription. Arxiv:2303.04130
[2] Grimmer D. (2023b). In Search of New Spacetimes: Topological Redescription and the ISE Equivalence Theorem. Arxiv:2306.08110
[3] Grimmer D. (2023c). From Humean Laws to a Neo-Kantian Spacetime: A Dynamics-First View of Topology. Arxiv:2308.14146
See the DPhil Seminar website for details.
DPhil Seminar Convenors: Lewis Williams and Kyle van Oosterum
