The necessary structure of the all-pervading aether : : discrete or continuous? Simple or symmetric? / / Peter Forrest.

• Superior document: Philosophische analyse = Philosophical analysis ; Bd. 49
• Author: Forrest, Peter.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Philosophische Analyse ; Bd. 49.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (230 pages) :; digital file(s).
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In this book I investigate the necessary structure of the aether – the stuff that fills the whole universe. Some of my conclusions are. 1. There is an enormous variety of structures that the aether might, for all we know, have. 2. Probably the aether is point-free. 3. In that case, it should be distinguished from Space-time, which is either a fiction or a construct. 4. Even if the aether has points, we should reject the orthodoxy that all regions are grounded in points by summation. 5. If the aether is point-free but not continuous, its most likely structure has extended atoms that are not simples. 6. Space-time is symmetric if and only if the aether is continuous. 7. If the aether is continuous, we should reject the standard interpretation of General Relativity, in which geometry determines gravity. 8. Contemporary physics undermines an objection to discrete aether based on scale invariance, but does not offer much positive support.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Introduction -- 1. A Survey of Hypotheses about the Aether's Structure -- 2. Conflicting Intuitions -- 3. Which Intuition to Abandon? -- 4. Hypervolume and Topology -- 5. The Problem with Differentiable Manifolds -- 6. Contemporary Physics and Discrete Aether -- 7. Symmetric Space-time -- Conclusions -- Glossary -- References -- Index