Metaphysical Emergence
Sam Baron, Kristie Miller, Jonathan Tallant
Abstract
Abstract Chapter Six focuses on the metaphysical, and weighty, emergence of spacetime from a more fundamental, non-spatiotemporal ontology. That spacetime must emerge in a metaphysical sense is challenged by considering a number of different ways of making the notion of metaphysical emergence more precise. Each option involves specifying emergence in terms of a particular metaphysical relation. The trouble is that the options are all spatial, temporal, or spatiotemporal notions (or tacitly rely on the same), and so without spacetime it is unclear that sense can be made of metaphysical emergence. Because standard ways of understanding metaphysical emergence appear to break down for spacetime, it is not so clear that spacetime must be emergent. At best, it seems that it might be emergent, but equally it might not be.