Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T06:26:24.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the Inextendibility of Space-Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Abstract

It has been argued that space-time must be inextendible—that it must be “as large as it can be” in some sense. Here, we register some skepticism with respect to this position.

Type
Physical Sciences
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Thanks to Thomas Barrett, Ben Feintzeig, David Malament, Jim Weatherall, and Chris Wüthrich for help with earlier versions of this document. Special thanks go to David Malament for providing a sketch of the lemma 2 proof.

References

Clarke, C. 1976. “Spacetime Singularities.” Communications in Mathematical Physics 49:1723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, J. 1995. Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Geroch, R. 1969. “Limits of Spacetimes.” Communications in Mathematical Physics 13:180–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geroch, R. 1970. “Singularities.” In Relativity, ed. Carmeli, M., Fickler, S. I., and Witten, L., 259–91. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Geroch, R., and Horowitz, G. 1979. “Global Structure of Spacetimes.” In General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, ed. Hawking, S. W. and Israel, W., 212–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hawking, S., and Ellis, G. 1973. The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malament, D. 1977. “Observationally Indistinguishable Space-Times.” In Foundations of Space-Time Theories, ed. Earman, J., Glymour, C., and Stachel, J., 6180. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Earman, J., Glymour, C., and Stachel, J. 2012. Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Manchak, J. 2009. “Can We Know the Global Structure of Spacetime?Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40:5356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchak, J. 2011. “What Is a Physically Reasonable Spacetime?Philosophy of Science 78:410–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchak, J. 2016a. “Epistemic ‘Holes’ in Spacetime.” Philosophy of Science 83:265–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchak, J. 2016b. “Is the Universe as Large as It Can Be?Erkenntnis 81:1341–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, R. 1969. “Gravitational Collapse: The Role of General Relativity.” Revisita del Nuovo Cimento, 1st ser., 1:252–76.Google Scholar
Penrose, R. 1979. “Singularities and Time-Asymmery.” In General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, ed. Hawking, S. and Israel, W., 581638. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Israel, W. 1999. “The Question of Cosmic Censorship.” Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy 20:233–48.Google Scholar
Wald, R. 1984. General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar