Mario Bacelar Valente

Publications (12) View all

• Article: The relativity of simultaneity between eternalism and presentism

  Mario Bacelar Valente
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  ABSTRACT: The relativity of simultaneity seems to favour a block universe view according to which the universe is a timelessly existing four-dimensional world, i.e. it favours an eternalist position. In this way, presentism is taken to be at odds with the theory of relativity. In this paper I will look in detail into the relativity of simultaneity by recovering Einstein's original approach. By clarifying the physical meaning of the relativity of simultaneity one can inform the philosophical debate. It turns out that, contrary to conventional wisdom, eternalist arguments cannot be made to stand when taking into account the relativity of simultaneity properly interpreted.
  02/2013;
• Article: Time in the theory of relativity: on natural clocks, proper time, the clock hypothesis, and all that

  Mario Bacelar Valente
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  ABSTRACT: When addressing the notion of proper time in the theory of relativity, it is usually taken for granted that the time read by an accelerated clock is given by the Minkowski proper time. However, there are authors like Harvey Brown that consider necessary an extra assumption to arrive at this result, the so-called clock hypothesis. In opposition to Brown, Richard T. W. Arthur takes the clock hypothesis to be already implicit in the theory. In this paper I will present a view different from these authors by recovering Einstein's notion of natural clock and showing its relevance to the debate.
  02/2013;
• Article: Did the concepts of space and time change that much with the 1905 theory of relativity?

  Mario Bacelar Valente
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  ABSTRACT: The advent of the 1905 theory of relativity is rightly considered as a breakthrough moment in the history of physics; in particular. it is widely accepted that it brought a new conception of space and time. The purpose of this work is to reevaluate to what point and in what sense can we consider that the conception of space and time went through a transformation when going from Newtonian mechanics to the theory of relativity.
  01/2012;
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  Article: The relativity of simultaneity and presentism.

  Mario Bacelar valente
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  ABSTRACT: According to conventional wisdom, presentism is at odds with the theory of relativity. This is supposed to be shown quite simply just by considering the relativity of simultaneity. In this paper I will show that conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact by clarifying the physical meaning of the relativity of simultaneity one can inform the philosophical debate and endorse a presentist view
  PhilSci Archive. 01/2012;
• Article: The concept of vacuum in quantum electrodynamics

  mario bacelar valente
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  ABSTRACT: A re-evaluation of the concept of vacuum in quantum electrodynamics is presented, focusing on the vacuum of the quantized electromagnetic field. In contrast to the ‘nothingness’ associated to the idea of classical vacuum, subtle aspects are found in relation to the vacuum of the quantized electromagnetic field both at theoretical and experimental levels. These are not the usually called vacuum effects. The view defended here is that the so-called vacuum effects are not due to the ground state of the quantized electromagnetic field.