Spacetime and Holes

Abstract

Here I describe and defend a version of space-time substantivalism. My account is meant partly as a reply to an argument against a particular substantivalist position that can be found both in John Earman and John Norton's “What price spacetime substantivalism? The hole story”, and Earman's World Enough and Spacetime. Their argument, the Hole Argument, purports to show that substantivalism leads to a radical form of indeterminism within a class of theories that includes our best theory of spacetime, namely, General Relativity (GTR). The hole argument contends that the substantivalist must view diffeomorphic models of a spacetime theory as representing genuinely distinct physical situations. It is this contention I argue against. The version of substantivalism I present, although not a traditional account, incorporates the important features of traditional substantivalist views.