What is it about?
This is a review article of a book about the aforementioned topics. The book itself falls squarely within the area of philosophy of physics. It is very technical, i.e. it is not written for lay readers. It turns out to be a heady mixture of mathematical physics and fundamental metaphysics.
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Why is it important?
The author starts this book with the frank admission that he failed in his original intention to write an accessible book for ‘anybody who is interested in the structure of space and time and knows a bit of calculus.’ In fact from the point of view of the general reader or even a reader with an interest in the philosophy of physics generally, the books fails on various levels.
Perspectives
One chapter of the book is entitled ‘Pointlessness’. Many pragmatically or scientifically minded readers may feel that this term would have been an appropriate title for the whole book. Members of the metaphysical club, however, will embrace the claim in the blurb ‘that when trying to extract the fundamental structure of the world from theories of physics one ignores philosophy at ones’ peril! This reviewer, for one, walked away from this book without suffering lasting damage.
Friedel Weinert
University of Bradford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Space, Time and Stuff. By Frank Arntzenius. Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 304, £30. ISBN: 978-0-19-969660-4, Philosophy, March 2013, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0031819113000247.
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