Skip to main content

Earman on the causal theory of time

Conclusion

I have so far ignored Earman's Section IV in which spatiotemporal coincidence is discussed. The answer will be clear from the preceding: the exact definitions and principles of the exact theories we have displayed are to be discussed with reference to the special and not the general theory of relativity. But moreover, Earman's transition from (C) to (1) assumes what we do not grant: that events are causally connectible exactly if the points in the mathematical space-time at which they are located are linked by a causal curve.

This captures in a nutshell my own conclusions. The first is that the causal theory, after its success vis-à-vis the STR, must now provide a detailed analysis of spatiotemporal concepts in the GTR. The second is that the points raised by Earman do not provide substantive reasons for doubting the adequacy of the causal theory to this task, because Earman insists in his extrapolations on a much closer relation between the empirical structure of events and the mathematical structures that model it than ought to be assumed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Bibliography

  1. Earman, J., ‘Are Spatial and Temporal Congruence Conventional?’ (forthcoming).

  2. Earman, J., this issue, p. 74.

  3. Glymour, C., ‘Cosmology, Convention, and the Closed Universe’, Mimeographed manuscript, Princeton University, 1970.

  4. Grünbaum, A., Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, Knopf, New York, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Grünbaum, A., Geometry and Chronometry in Philosophical Perspective, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Grünbaum, A., ‘Space, Time, and Falsifiability, Part I’, Philosophy of Science 37 (1970), 469–588.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Pauli, W., Theory of Relativity, Pergamon Press, London, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  8. van Fraassen, B., An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space, Random House, New York, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

I wish to acknowledge gratefully my debt to Dr. A. Grünbaum, University of Pittsburgh, to Dr. C. Glymour, Princeton University, and to the support of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

van Fraassen, B.C. Earman on the causal theory of time. Synthese 24, 87–95 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00540143

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00540143

Keywords

  • Detailed Analysis
  • General Theory
  • Close Relation
  • Mathematical Structure
  • Causal Theory