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Single Idea 3904
[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 4. Substantival Space
]
Full Idea
I can measure the length of something only if I know that it has not moved between the moment when I locate one end of it and the moment when I locate the other.
Clarification
When you reach the end, the beginning may have moved
Gist of Idea
Measuring space requires no movement while I do it
Source
Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 25.3)
Book Ref
Scruton,Roger: 'Modern Philosophy: introduction and survey' [Sinclair-Stevenson 1994], p.360
A Reaction
A nice example of how even simple propositions have many presuppositions.
The
16 ideas
with the same theme
[space that exists in its own right]:
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5097
|
If everything has a place, this causes an infinite regress, because each place must have place
[Aristotle]
|
|
5099
|
The universe as a whole is not anywhere
[Aristotle]
|
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14031
|
Space must exist, since movement is obvious, and there must be somewhere to move in
[Epicurus]
|
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17013
|
Absolute space is independent, homogeneous and immovable
[Newton]
|
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2103
|
The idea that the universe could be moved forward with no other change is just a fantasy
[Leibniz]
|
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17543
|
So-called 'empty' space is the carrier of geometry and kinematics
[Heisenberg]
|
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15981
|
Absolute space either provides locations, or exists but lacks 'marks' for locations
[Alexander,P]
|
|
8592
|
Empty space is measurable in ways in which empty time necessarily is not
[Bennett, by Shoemaker]
|
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18220
|
Both philosophy and physics now make substantivalism more attractive
[Field,H]
|
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3904
|
Measuring space requires no movement while I do it
[Scruton]
|
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19035
|
General Relativity allows substantivalism about space-time - that it has independent properties
[Hoefer]
|
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22923
|
Absolute space explains actual and potential positions, and geometrical truths
[Le Poidevin]
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14991
|
Space has real betweenness and congruence structure (though it is not the Euclidean concepts)
[Sider]
|
|
20659
|
Space and its contents seem to be one stuff - so space is the only existing thing
[Wolfram]
|
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21160
|
The Higgs field means even low energy space is not empty
[New Sci.]
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20458
|
The world is just particles plus fields; space is the gravitational field
[Rovelli]
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