Spacetime Models for Cosmology

James Owen Weatherall

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arXiv · 2504.05699

Spacetime Models for Cosmology

James Owen Weatherall

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Abstract

I revisit Roberto Torretti's "Spacetime Models for the World" [SHPMP 31 (2):171-186 (2000)] in the light of more recent work in (philosophy of) cosmology. I discuss the motivations for FLRW spacetimes as a natural starting point for inquiry, and I suggest contemporary cosmologists can avoid the rationalism that Torretti attributes to Einstein's early work in relativistic cosmology. I then discuss the senses in which FLRW models are idealized, and I show how those idealizations (and partial de-idealizations) have contributed to our understanding of the universe.

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James Owen Weatherall. 2025-04-08. Spacetime Models for Cosmology. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.05699

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