LIR and physical science
time, space and cosmology
pp. 229-267
in: , Logic in reality, Berlin, Springer, 2008Abstract
The question of the nature of time and space, which determines how one looks at both phenomena and theories of reality, will be explored in this chapter. The LIR view of time and space is compared with current views in general relativity, and the problems of 'subjective" and "objective" time and of an independent "background" space-time are discussed. The mode of description of spacetime and of the relation of simultaneity and succession in the LIR framework is quite novel, and is applied to issues in both science and philosophy, e.g., to the metaphysics of being and becoming. Quantum mechanics, including the operation of the widely discussed concept of Bohr complementarity, are interpreted in LIR terms. Like relational quantum mechanics, the scientific structural realism of LIR places the emphasis on relations rather than states, while maintaining the role of both. Recent developments aimed at the unification of quantum theory and gravity within general relativity tend to confirm the role of relations as in the LIR framework. The principle of self-duality in these theories may be reflected in the LIR principle of dynamic opposition. A new cosmological theory, the cyclic model of the universe, is examined from the LIR standpoint.