Gravitational Waves and Spacetime

Foundations of Science 23 (2):399-403 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The recent detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO team has rightly been hailed as “the crowning achievemen of classical physics”. This detection, which came at the end of a decade-long quest, involved 950 investigators, and cost around one billion US dollars, was the scientific star of the year 2015. What, if any, is the philosophical impact of this scientific breakthrough, which Albert Einstein had anticipated one century earlier? To answer this question we start by examining the central equations of Einstein’s theory of gravitation, also known as general relativity. Subsequently we analyze the special case of a hollow sphere, in an attempt to answer the question of the reality and even materiality of space or, rather, spacetime. As well, the view that gravitation is a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime is discussed, and the reality of gravitational waves is regarded as the coup de grâce to that view.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,486

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-03-06

Downloads
210 (#123,924)

6 months
11 (#246,005)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mario Bunge
Last affiliation: McGill University

Citations of this work

Systemic materialism.Gustavo E. Romero - 2022 - In Javier Pérez-Jara, Lino Camprubí & Gustavo E. Romero, Contemporary Materialism: Its Ontology and Epistemology. New York, NY, USA: Springer Synthese. pp. 79-107.
It ain't necessarily so: Gravitational waves and energy transport.Patrick M. Duerr - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 65:25-40.
Black Hole Philosophy.Gustavo E. Romero - 2021 - Crítica. Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 53 (159):73–132.
Mario Bunge (1919–2020): Conjoining Philosophy of Science and Scientific Philosophy.Martin Mahner - 2021 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 52 (1):3-23.

View all 8 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Scientific Materialism.M. BUNGE - 1981 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 46 (4):697-698.
Scientific Materialism.Mario Bunge - 1981 - Science and Society 47 (4):485-487.

Add more references