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OverviewFrank Arntzenius presents a series of radical new ideas about the structure of space and time. Space, Time, and Stuff is an attempt to show that physics is geometry: that the fundamental structure of the physical world is purely geometrical structure. Along the way, he examines some non-standard views about the structure of spacetime and its inhabitants, including the idea that space and time are pointless, the idea that quantum mechanics is a completely local theory, the idea that antiparticles are just particles travelling back in time, and the idea that time has no structure whatsoever. The main thrust of the book, however, is that there are good reasons to believe that spaces other than spacetime exist, and that it is the existence of these additional spaces that allows one to reduce all of physics to geometry. Philosophy, and metaphysics in particular, plays an important role here: the assumption that the fundamental laws of physics are simple in terms of the fundamental physical properties and relations is pivotal. Without this assumption one gets nowhere. That is to say, when trying to extract the fundamental structure of the world from theories of physics one ignores philosophy at one's peril! Full Product DetailsAuthor: Frank Arntzenius (Oxford University)Publisher: Oxford University Press Imprint: Oxford University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.70cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 23.40cm Weight: 0.428kg ISBN: 9780198705918ISBN 10: 0198705913 Pages: 298 Publication Date: 03 April 2014 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1: It's just one damn thing after another 2: There goes the neighborhood . . . 3: The world according to quantum mechanics 4: Pointlessness 5: Do space and time exist? 6: Gauge theories and fibre bundle spaces 7: Directions, hands, and charges 8: with Cian Dorr: Calculus as geometry Bibliography IndexReviewsDespite its challenging subject matter, much of this book flows like an edited transcript of lectures. Richard Healey, Metascience Author InformationFrank Arntzenius completed his undergraduate degree in physics at Groningen University, and his PhD in philosophy of physics at the London School of Economics. He has held positions at the University of Pittsburgh, Harvard, the University of Southern California, and Rutgers University. In 2007 he moved to Oxford, where he became the Sir Peter Strawson Fellow in Philosophy at University College, Oxford University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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