PHIL 225 : Substantivalism vs Relationism.docx
Document Summary
Do time and space exist independently of their contents: substantivalism asserts that time/space exist independently of events in time or objects in space. It is coherent, on the substantivalist picture, to have empty space or empty time: relationism asserts that time/space only exist as a system of relations between events in time or objects in space. It is incoherent on the relationist picture to have empty time; but empty space is problematic. The relationist has to grant that there is empty space between objects; and that empty space is only incoherent in situations where there are no objects at all. Substantivalism has an initial advantage: firstly, it looks like substantivalism is our more intuitive view. That would be a starting-point and a tie-breaker; but not a strong reason in general to accept it: relationism also has a greater explanatory burden; they have to work harder to accommodate empty space into their view.
