On Spacetime, Points, and Bare Particulars

Abstract

In his paper Bare Particulars, T. Sider claims that one of the most plausible candidates for bare particulars are spacetime points. The aim of this paper is to shed light on Sider's reasoning and its consequences. There are three concepts of spacetime points that allow their identification with bare particulars. One of them, Moderate structural realism, is considered to be the most adequate due its appropriate approach to spacetime metric and moderate view of mereological simples. However, it pushes the Substratum theory to dismiss primitive thisness as the only identity condition for bare particulars, but the paper argues that such elimination is a legitimate step.

No bare particulars

“…This statement of Sider's is not obviously compatible with his suggestion that bare particulars are points of spacetime. For critical discussion, see Schmidt (2008).…”