In objection to one of Yuri Balashov＇s defenses of perdurantism, Matthew Davidson claims that, according to the special theory of relativity, both 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional shapes are nonintrinsic, i.e., they a...In objection to one of Yuri Balashov＇s defenses of perdurantism, Matthew Davidson claims that, according to the special theory of relativity, both 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional shapes are nonintrinsic, i.e., they are relative to reference frames. The author argues that 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional spatial shapes are indeed nonintrinsic, but shapes in 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional spacetime are intrinsic according to the special theory of relativity. This follows from the special relativity theory＇s claim that spacetime intervals or distances in any n-dimensional spacetime are invariant, unlike spatial distances.展开更多
文摘In objection to one of Yuri Balashov＇s defenses of perdurantism, Matthew Davidson claims that, according to the special theory of relativity, both 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional shapes are nonintrinsic, i.e., they are relative to reference frames. The author argues that 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional spatial shapes are indeed nonintrinsic, but shapes in 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional spacetime are intrinsic according to the special theory of relativity. This follows from the special relativity theory＇s claim that spacetime intervals or distances in any n-dimensional spacetime are invariant, unlike spatial distances.
