Teaching and Learning Guide for: Substantivalism vs Relationalism about Space in Classical Physics

This article is about the nature of space, focusing on the question of whether it exists independently of matter and related questions about its geometric structure. One fascinating aspect of this debate is how it straddles the border between empirical science and philosophy. Since at least the time of Newton, it has been thought that various physical phenomena demonstrate some conclusion about the nature of space, but as I try to emphasize, the arguments are invariably suffused with philosophical presuppositions. This article examines these arguments in the context of classical physics. The article is designed to be used in a range of teaching settings. In an intro-level class, one could use just sections 1–3. They introduce the debate as it played out betweenNewton and Leibniz, and should be accessible to students with little or no previous exposure to the topic or to philosophy. In an upper-level undergraduate class, one could add sections 4–6, which describe how the debate has developed in the contemporary era. And in a research seminar, one could then add sections 7–9, which offer a critical analysis of the contemporary debate.