A Geometric Strategy

Abstract

Develops in some detail a strategy of nominalistic interpretation that assumes that points of spacetime are legitimate, concrete, physical entities. What makes the strategy possible is the fact that analytic geometry in the style of Descartes can be interpreted in synthetic geometry in the style of Euclid, using triples of points to represent real numbers (namely, as ratios of pairs of line segments connecting each of a pair of points with a third). This strategy can handle classical theories based on Euclidean space and special‐relativistic theories based on Minkowski space. The extension of the strategy to general relativity and quantum mechanics remains to be worked out, as does the treatment of the higher branch of geometry known as descriptive set theory.