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  1. Why the Weyl Tile Argument is Wrong.Lu Chen - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
    Weyl famously argued that if space were discrete, then Euclidean geometry could not hold even approximately. Since then, many philosophers have responded to this argument by advancing alternative accounts of discrete geometry that recover approximately Euclidean space. However, they have missed an importantly flawed assumption in Weyl’s argument: physical geometry is determined by fundamental spacetime structures independently from dynamical laws. In this paper, I aim to show its falsity through two rigorous examples: random walks in statistical physics and quantum mechanics.
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  • Smooth Infinitesimals in the Metaphysical Foundation of Spacetime Theories.Lu Chen - 2022 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 51 (4):857-877.
    I propose a theory of space with infinitesimal regions called smooth infinitesimal geometry based on certain algebraic objects, which regiments a mode of reasoning heuristically used by geometricists and physicists. I argue that SIG has the following utilities. It provides a simple metaphysics of vector fields and tangent space that are otherwise perplexing. A tangent space can be considered an infinitesimal region of space. It generalizes a standard implementation of spacetime algebraicism called Einstein algebras. It solves the long-standing problem of (...)
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  • The constructivist’s programme and the problem of pregeometry.Niels Linnemann & Kian Salimkhani - manuscript
    Prominently, Norton argues against constructivism about spacetime theories, the doctrine that spatiotemporal structure in the dynamics only has derivative status. Among other things, he accuses Brown and Pooley's dynamical approach to special relativity of being merely half-way constructivist: setting up relativistic fields as presupposed in the dynamical approach to special relativity already requires spatiotemporal background structure. We first assess a recent solution proposal by Menon and then provide our very own defense of constructivism along two independent lines.
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