Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper engages with the metaphysical debate between Absolutism and Comparativism about mass, addressing the question of whether massive objects possess their masses intrinsically (as absolute magnitudes) or only relationally, through their mass relations to other objects. In the current debate, comparativists argue that the dimensional nature of mass renders absolute magnitudes undetectable and redundant, forcing absolutists to rely on arguments about the dynamic relevance of absolute masses in physical laws. I advance a novel defence of Absolutism by appealing to contemporary metrology, particularly the role of the Kibble balance and the redefinition of the kilogram in terms of the fixed numerical value of Planck’s constant. I argue that absolute masses are metrically detectable, independently of their dynamic relevance, thereby challenging the claim that dimensional quantities are kinematically comparative. Additionally, I provide a solution to the Ozma games, showing how the meaning of our mass values (like ‘1 kg’) can be communicated to extra-terrestrial intelligences through the operational universality of the new SI definitions.
DOI: 10.1086/737047
Author: Julien Nicolas Tricard
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4411089175