[PhilPhys] Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Jeremy Butterfield & Henrique Gomes (19 November on Zoom)

[Antonio Vassallo]

(With apologies for cross-posting)

On Friday, 19 November, Jeremy Butterfield and Henrique Gomes (University
of Cambridge) will give a talk titled "Assessing the Hole Argument"
(abstract below).

The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CET). If you have
not registered yet, you can do so here <https://forms.gle/qpb8vVjtrF4y2nZ76>
.

The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group
<https://ans.pw.edu.pl/Nauka/Zespoly-badawcze/Philosophy-of-Physics-Group>
at the Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of
Technology. The program for the winter semester can be found here
<https://ans.pw.edu.pl/Nauka/Zespoly-badawcze/Philosophy-of-Physics-Group/Events/Warsaw-Spacetime-Colloquium-2021-2022-online>.
The videos of the previous meetings are available on YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM-1yNCyvJJC0KUgEqXTsFA38luoSiqXo>.

You can address any inquiry to antonio.vassallo at pw.edu.pl.

ABSTRACT
We assess the hole argument in general relativity, and the related topics
of the definitions of symmetries and determinism. We begin by rejecting the
claim made in some recent literature that the sheer mathematics of the
theory makes it mandatory to identify spacetime points “across possible
worlds” by dragging along by the isomorphism. We agree that the mathematics
is *indifferent* to the identity of points, and that in many contexts,
drag-along is appropriate. But we argue that general relativity, and indeed
other spacetime theories, use other means of “trans-world identification”,
which we will call *threading*. Besides, they *need* to use threading, on
pain of trivialising important constructions: even elementary ones like the
Lie derivative.
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