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Single Idea 10683

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 2. Space ]

Full Idea

We might dispense with substantival space, and say that if the distribution of matter in space could have been different, that just means the matter of the Universe could have been shaped differently (with geometry as the science of shapes).

Gist of Idea

We could ignore space, and just talk of the shape of matter

Source

Keith Hossack (Plurals and Complexes [2000], 9)

Book Ref

-: 'British Soc for the Philosophy of Science' [-], p.432

The 12 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about space]:

13180 Space is the order of coexisting possibles [Leibniz]
17736 We can't learn of space through experience; experience of space needs its representation [Kant]
5531 Space is an a priori necessary basic intuition, as we cannot imagine its absence [Kant]
16922 Space must have three dimensions, because only three lines can meet at right angles [Kant]
24096 Unlike time, space is subjective. Empty space was assumed, but it doesn't exist [Nietzsche]
6468 There is 'private space', and there is also the 'space of perspectives' [Russell]
7552 Six dimensions are needed for a particular, three within its own space, and three to locate that space [Russell]
15321 Space can't be an individual (in space), but it is present in all places [Harré/Madden]
21112 Empty space contains a continual flux of brief virtual particles [Krauss]
9922 If space is really just a force-field, then it is a physical entity [Burgess/Rosen]
10683 We could ignore space, and just talk of the shape of matter [Hossack]
19947 Hilbert Space is an abstraction representing all possible states of a quantum system [New Sci.]