Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity

Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780191944345,9780192849076,0191944343,0192849077,9780192665607, 019266560X

Product detail:

• ISBN 10: 019266560X
• ISBN 13: 9780192665607
• Author: Richard T. W. Arthur

In this book, Arthur gives fresh interpretations of Gottfried Leibniz’s theories of time, space, and the relativity of motion, based on a thorough examination of Leibniz’s manuscripts as well as his published papers. These are analysed in historical context, but also with an eye to their contemporary relevance. Leibniz’s views on relativity have been extremely influential, first on Mach, and then on Einstein, while his novel approach to geometry in his analysis situs inspired many later developments in geometry. Arthur expounds the latter in some detail, explaining its relationship to Leibniz’s metaphysics of space and the grounding of motion, and defending Leibniz’s views on the relativity of motion against charges of inconsistency. The brilliance of his work on time, though, has not been so well appreciated, and Arthur attempts to remedy this through a detailed discussion of Leibniz’s relational theory of time, showing how it underpins his theory of possible worlds, his complex account of contingency, and his highly original treatment of the continuity of time, providing formal treatments in an appendix. In other appendices, Arthur provides translations of previously untranslated writings by Leibniz on analysis situs and on Copernicanism, as well as an essay on Leibniz’s philosophy of relations. In his introductory chapter he explains how the framework for the book is provided by the interpretation of Leibniz’s metaphysics he defended in his earlier Monads, Composition, and Force (OUP 2018, winner of the 2019 annual JHP Book Prize for best book in the history of philosophy published in 2018).

Table of contents:

1. 1. De tempore: Leibniz’s Theory of Time
2. Introduction
3. 1.1 The Relational Core
4. 1.2 The Causal Theory of Temporal Order
5. 1.3 Contingency, Compossibles, and Counterparts
6. 1.4 Reduction, Ideality, and the Homogeneity of Time
7. 1.5 Change, Vague States, and Physical Continuity
8. 1.6 Conclusion
9. 2. De loco: Leibniz’s Theory of Space
10. Introduction
11. 2.1 Relative Space and the Order of Situations
12. 2.2 On the Genesis of Leibniz’s Theory of Space
13. 2.3 The Analysis of Situation
14. 2.4 The Metaphysics of Space
15. 2.5 Spaces: Real, Phenomenal, and Abstract
16. 2.6 Conclusion
17. 3. De motu: Leibniz on the Relativity of Motion
18. Introduction
19. 3.1 Change of Situation and Motion with Respect to Cause
20. 3.2 Copernicanism and Instrumentalism
21. 3.3 Force and the Metaphysics of Motion
22. 3.4 Rotational Motion: Leibniz vs. Newton
23. 3.5 Motion through Space and Leibnizian Spacetime
24. 3.6 Conclusion

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