Intimations of Quantum Gravitational Time

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Callender
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Gravity ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
Temporal Becoming

Quantum gravity is not so much a developed theory as a set of research programs. The project inevitably demands hard and deep decisions about time. The chapter explores a fascinating example wherein temporal “becoming” is possibly restored, followed by an elegant example of the opposite, wherein time “disappears” altogether. The chapter shows that the time of relativity—such as it is—is quite resilient. It is both harder to kill off and harder to improve upon than is usually thought.

scholarly journals Space Emergence in Contemporary Physics: Why We Do Not Need Fundamentality, Layers of Reality and Emergence

Disputatio ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (49) ◽  
pp. 71-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baptiste Le Bihan
Keyword(s):  
Wave Function ◽  
Quantum Gravity ◽  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Loop Quantum Gravity ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
Metaphysical Interpretation ◽  
Spatial Entities ◽  
Wave Function Realism

Abstract ‘Space does not exist fundamentally: it emerges from a more fundamental non-spatial structure.’ This intriguing claim appears in various research programs in contemporary physics. Philosophers of physics tend to believe that this claim entails either that spacetime does not exist, or that it is derivatively real. In this article, I introduce and defend a third metaphysical interpretation of the claim: reductionism about space. I argue that, as a result, there is no need to subscribe to fundamentality, layers of reality and emergence in order to analyse the constitution of space by non-spatial entities. It follows that space constitution, if borne out, does not provide empirical evidence in favour of a stratified, Aristotelian in spirit, metaphysics. The view will be described in relation to two particular research programs in contemporary physics: wave function realism and loop quantum gravity.

scholarly journals Priority Monism Beyond Spacetime

Metaphysica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baptiste Le Bihan
Keyword(s):  
String Theory ◽  
Quantum Gravity ◽  
Loop Quantum Gravity ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Fundamental Structure ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
Priority Monism ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Mereological Composition

AbstractI will defend two claims. First, Schaffer’s priority monism is in tension with many research programs in quantum gravity. Second, priority monism can be modified into a view more amenable to this physics. The first claim is grounded in the fact that promising approaches to quantum gravity such as loop quantum gravity or string theory deny the fundamental reality of spacetime. Since fundamental spacetime plays an important role in Schaffer’s priority monism by being identified with the fundamental structure, namely the cosmos, the disappearance of spacetime in these views might undermine classical priority monism. My second claim is that priority monism can avoid this issue with two moves: first, in dropping one of its core assumption, namely that the fundamental structure is spatio-temporal, second, by identifying the connection between the non-spatio-temporal structure and the derivative spatio-temporal structure with mereological composition.

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