In general relativity, the hole argument is an apparent paradox that much troubled Albert Einstein while developing his famous field equation.
Some philosophers of physics take the argument to raise a problem for manifold substantialism, a doctrine that the manifold of events in spacetime are a "substance" which exists independently of the matter within it. Other philosophers and physicists disagree with this interpretation, and view the argument as a confusion about gauge invariance and gauge fixing instead.
Read more about Hole Argument: Einstein's Hole Argument, Meaning of Coordinate Invariance, Einstein's Resolution
Famous quotes containing the words hole and/or argument:
“Wondrous hole! Magical hole! Dazzlingly influential hole! Noble and effulgent hole! From this hole everything follows logically: first the baby, then the placenta, then, for years and years and years until death, a way of life. It is all logic, and she who lives by the hole will live also by its logic. It is, appropriately, logic with a hole in it.”
—Cynthia Ozick (b. 1928)
“The wonder of light is your familiar tale,
Pert wench, down to the nineteenth century:
Mr. Rimbaud the Frenchman’s apostasy
Asserts the argument that you are stale,
Flat and unprofitable, importunate but pale,
Lithe Corpse!”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)