Phenomenological Reviews

Book | Chapter

178841

A presentation and defense of Anton Marty's conception of space

Ingvar Johansson

pp. 99-119

Abstract

Newtonian mechanics has a container conception of space. Space is regarded as an empty receptacle in which all material bodies exist. For a long time, most defenders of this view claimed that it must be mind-dependent. Anton Marty is the first modern philosopher to argue both that physical space is mind-independent and that it has the features characteristic of Newtonian physical space. Moreover, he works out a number of metaphysical implications of this view. Therefore, Marty ought to be given a prominent place in the history of conceptions of space. As shown by Graham Nerlich, a container conception can be defended even after the twentieth-century revolutions in physics. By bringing Marty and Nerlich together, the paper claims that a container conception of space/space-time should even today be taken seriously in the philosophy of physics.

Publication details

Published in:

Bacigalupo Giuliano, Leblanc Hélène (2019) Anton Marty and contemporary philosophy. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 99-119

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-05581-3_5

Full citation:

Johansson Ingvar (2019) „A presentation and defense of Anton Marty's conception of space“, In: G. Bacigalupo & H. Leblanc (eds.), Anton Marty and contemporary philosophy, Dordrecht, Springer, 99–119.