Does general relativity highlight necessary connections in nature?
Authors:
- Antonio Vassallo
Abstract
The dynamics of general relativity is encoded in a set of ten differential equations, the so-called Einstein field equations. It is usually believed that Einstein’s equations represent a physical law describing the coupling of spacetime with material fields. However, just six of these equations actually describe the coupling mechanism: the remaining four represent a set of differential relations known as Bianchi identities. The paper discusses the physical role that the Bianchi identities play in general relativity, and investigates whether these identities—qua part of a physical law—highlight some kind of a posteriori necessity in a Kripkean sense. The inquiry shows that general relativistic physics has an interesting bearing on the debate about the metaphysics of the laws of nature.
- Record ID
- WUT330e86e55bd2418c9770c13e0f067a0d
- Author
- Journal series
- Synthese, ISSN 0039-7857, e-ISSN 1573-0964
- Issue year
- 2021
- Vol
- 199
- No
- 1-2
- Pages
- 4929-4951
- Publication size in sheets
- 1.10
- Keywords in English
- General relativity; Laws of nature; Necessity; Bianchi identities; Humeanism; Background independence
- ASJC Classification
- ;
- DOI
- DOI:10.1007/s11229-020-03009-z Opening in a new tab
- URL
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-03009-z Opening in a new tab
- Language
- (en) English
- License
- File
-
- File: 1
- Does general relativity highlight necessary connections in nature?, File Vassallo2021_Article_DoesGeneralRelativityHighlight-1.pdf / 451 KB
- Vassallo2021_Article_DoesGeneralRelativityHighlight-1.pdf
- publication date: 18-01-2021
- Does general relativity highlight necessary connections in nature?, File Vassallo2021_Article_DoesGeneralRelativityHighlight-1.pdf / 451 KB
-
- Score (nominal)
- 200
- Score source
- journalList
- Score
- = 200.0, 14-05-2022, ArticleFromJournal
- Publication indicators
- = 0; : 2016 = 1.149; : 2020 (2 years) = 2.908 - 2020 (5 years) =2.296
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- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://repo.pw.edu.pl/info/article/WUT330e86e55bd2418c9770c13e0f067a0d/
- URN
urn:pw-repo:WUT330e86e55bd2418c9770c13e0f067a0d
* presented citation count is obtained through Internet information analysis and it is close to the number calculated by the Publish or PerishOpening in a new tab system.