An Ontology of Space, Time, and “Spacetime” : Back From the Non-Euclidean Leap
I have been an avid student of the ontology of “spacetime” since I was first introduced to the concept of non-Euclidean space and the Einstein/Minkowski invention of “curved spacetime” as an integral concept in relativity theory.
Since I was very young I have “seen” space as the infinite emptiness in which all things (objects, light, and forces) exist and move; and I have always thought of time as an artifact of measurement, i.e., the “duration” of specifically selected events between “clicks” of the stopwatch by whomever is ‘clocking” the chosen event. So I have been mystified by the concept “spacetime” as a malleable fabric, a coalescence of space and time as entities existing in and of themselves in “the real world.” (See Minkowki’s Glorious Non-entity, Spacetime, by Brown and Pooley for openers.)
When I say that I see space as infinite emptiness, this is not to deny finite volumes. Of course we can...