Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-14-2025
Abstract
In this article, I argue that modern spacetime physics causes problems for a number of traditional accounts of modality, but also offers important new ideas about the connection between modal and non-modal features of reality. I suggest that recent work on relational observables in general relativity and quantum gravity can help us understand how non-modal features of reality could arise from modal features of reality within some form of modal ontic structural realism. In particular, I argue that the notion of an ‘internal view,’ as employed in the partial/complete observables formalism and the quantum reference frame formalism, is an important conceptual insight which can help address outstanding problems in the philosophy of lawhood and modality.
Recommended Citation
Adlam, E. Relational observables, quiddities, and structural realism. Synthese 206, 104 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05190-5
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
The authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
This article was originally published in Synthese, volume 206, in 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05190-5