Presentism meets black holes. (English) Zbl 1319.83016
Summary: Presentism is, roughly, the metaphysical doctrine that maintains that whatever exists, exists in the present. The compatibility of presentism with the theories of special and general relativity was much debated in recent years. It has been argued that at least some versions of presentism are consistent with time-orientable models of general relativity. In this paper, we confront the thesis of presentism with relativistic physics, in the strong gravitational limit where black holes are formed. We conclude that the presentist position is at odds with the existence of black holes and other compact objects in the universe. A revision of the thesis is necessary, if it is intended to be consistent with the current scientific view of the universe.
MSC:
| 83C57 | Black holes |
| 83C05 | Einstein’s equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) |
| 03A05 | Philosophical and critical aspects of logic and foundations |
| 83A05 | Special relativity |
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