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What Do Privileged Coordinates Tell Us about Structure

Bibliographic Data

ID10705688
AuthorsThomas William Barrett (Department of Philosophy), J B Manchak (0000-0001-8057-9734, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science)
Year2025
Volume92
Issue3
Pages528-547
Publication date2025-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8248 • E-ISSN: 1539-767X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/psa.2024.53
OpenAlexW4404772948
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

We examine whether the “privileged coordinates” of a geometric space encode its “amount of structure.” In doing so, we compare this coordinate approach to comparing amounts of structure to the more familiar automorphism approach. We first show that on a natural understanding of the former, it faces one of the same well-known problems as the latter. We then capture a precise sense in which the two approaches are closely related to one another, and we conclude by discussing whether they might still prove useful in cases of philosophical interest, despite their shortcomings

Epistemology · Computer Science · Mathematics and Applications · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Relativity and Gravitational Theory

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  • Who's afraid of coordinate systems? An essay on representation of spacetime structure

    Open Access•David Wallace•Studies in History and Philosophy…•2019

  • Spacetime structure

    Open Access•Thomas William Barrett•Studies in History and Philosophy…•2015

  • On automorphism criteria for comparing amounts of mathematical structure

    Open Access•Thomas William Barrett, J B Manchak et al.•Synthese•2023

  • The curvature argument

    Open Access•Thomas William Barrett•Studies in History and Philosophy…•2021

  • What Do Symmetries Tell Us about Structure

    Open Access•Thomas William Barrett•Philosophy of Science•2018

  • The Non-equivalence of Einstein and Lorentz

    Open Access•Candice Bradley, Clara Bradley•The British Journal for the…•2021

  • On the Structure of Classical Mechanics

    Thomas William Barrett•The British Journal for the…•2015

  • A Hierarchy of Spacetime Symmetries

    Jb Manchak, Thomas Barrett et al.•The British Journal for the…•2023

Citations per year1
Citation span2026 - 2026 (1)
Highly citedNo

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