'Spacetime Functionalism', Geneva Symmetry Group Workshop

Geneva, 1-2 March 2018


Baptiste Le Bihan (University of Geneva): Spacetime functionalism: no hard problem of spacetime

Abstract: I will focus on spacetime functionalism as a strategy that may be used to fulfill two tasks: first, to answer the epistemological problem of empirical coherence in quantum gravity (QG) and second, more generally, to analyze the relation obtaining between general relativity and QG, namely to account for spacetime emergence in a robust and metaphysical sense. I will clarify the different metaphysical pictures behind spacetime functionalism and argue that functionalism is an interesting and viable epistemologicalposition but is more problematic as ametaphysical view. Indeed, although spacetime functionalism provides an answer to the problem of empirical coherence (as has been argued by Lam and Wüthrich, manuscript) it fails to provide a comprehensive account of spacetime emergence. By drawing a comparison to the philosophy of mind, I will show that when applied to spacetime emergence, the functionalist strategy comes in different flavors, each entailing a different metaphysical picture of the world. Therefore, it does not offer a solution to the hard problem of spacetime, which is to interpret the nature of the relation obtaining between spacetime roles and spacetime realizers (in the functionalist framework). What is more, it remains consistent with deflationist, eliminativist, dualist and reductive alternative approaches of this relation.

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