Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-glrdx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-28T17:35:25.458Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Epistemic “Holes” in Space-Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John Byron Manchak
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of models of general relativity seem to contain “holes” that are thought to be “physically unreasonable.” One seeks a condition to rule out these models. We examine a number of possibilities already in use. We then introduce a new condition: epistemic hole-freeness. Epistemic hole-freeness is not just a new condition—it is new in kind. In particular, it does not presuppose a distinction between space-times that are “physically reasonable” and those that are not.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 265 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

†

Thanks to Jeff Barrett, Thomas Barrett, Erik Curiel, David Malament, Sarita Rosenstock, Chris Smeenk, Jim Weatherall, Chris Wüthrich, and a number of anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions on previous drafts.

References

Earman, J. 1995. Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Earman, J. 2008. “Pruning Some Branches from ‘Branching Spacetimes.”’ In The Ontology of Spacetime II, ed. Dieks, D., 187–205. Amsterdam: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geroch, R. 1970. “Singularities.” In Relativity, ed. Carmeli, M., Fickler, S., and Witten, L., 259–92. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Geroch, R. 1977. “Prediction in General Relativity.” In Foundations of Space-Time Theories, ed. Earman, J., Glymour, C., and Statchel, J., 81–93. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 8. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Geroch, R., and Horowitz, G.. 1979. “Global Structure of Spacetimes.” In General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, ed. Hawking, S. W. and Israel, W., 212–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hawking, S., and Ellis, G.. 1973. The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S., and Penrose, R.. 1970. “The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 314:529–48.Google Scholar
Krasnikov, S. 2009. “Even the Minkowski Space Is Holed.” Physical Review D 79:124041.Google Scholar
Malament, D. 2012. Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchak, J. 2009. “Is Spacetime Hole-Free?” General Relativity and Gravitation 41:1639–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchak, J. 2011. “What Is a Physically Reasonable Spacetime?” Philosophy of Science 78:410–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchak, J. 2014. “On Spacetime Singularities, Holes, and Extensions.” Philosophy of Science 81:1066–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, R. 1979. “Singularities and Time-Asymmery.” In General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, ed. Hawking, S. W. and Israel, W., 581–638. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Penrose, R. 1999. “The Question of Cosmic Censorship.” Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy 20:233–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rindler, W. 1956. “Visual Horizons in World-Models.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 116:662–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, R. 1984. General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar