2024/04/17 by Emilia Margoni, Daniele Oriti, Margoni, Emilia +1
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical Philosophy and Thought #Epistemology #FOS: Physical sciences #Functionalism (philosophy of mind) #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Philosophy #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Spacetime #Theoretical physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.11386
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
openalex publication_date 2024/04/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Among the various attempts to formulate a theory of quantum gravity, a class of approaches suggests that spacetime, as modeled by general relativity, is destined to fade away. A major issue becomes then to identify which structures may inhabit the more fundamental, non-spatiotemporal environment, as well as to explain the relationship with the higher-level spatiotemporal physics. Recently, it has been suggested that a certain understanding of functionalism is the proper tool to suitably account for the recovery of spacetime. Here the viability and usefulness of such a conceptual strategy is explored, by looking at the various levels of spacetime emergence a theory of quantum gravity is expected to deal with. Our conclusion will be that, while its viability is clear also in a quantum gravity context, the import of spacetime functionalism remains rather unsettled.