RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 What spacetime does: ideal observers and (Earman's) symmetry principles
A1 Sus, Adan
AB The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that anyspacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directlyconnected 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 classicaldiscussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterizationof the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devicesplays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to providea general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordinationbetween two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretationof physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand spacetimein physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observershave to experience.
SN 0495-4548
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/81137
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/81137
LA spa
NO Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, vol. 38, no. 1, 2023, pp. 67–85.
DS UVaDOC
RD 20-ene-2026