Space & Matter
Extension, location, and the void
Overview
Space is the arena in which matter exists, and matter is what populates space. But the relationship runs deeper than container and content: matter shapes the geometry of space (as in general relativity), and the structure of space constrains the possible configurations of matter. The ancient question of whether a void — empty space without matter — is even possible remains philosophically live.
Central Tension
Newton's absolute space exists independently of matter as an infinite, fixed container. Leibniz's relational space is nothing but the set of spatial relations among material things — with no matter, there is no space. Einstein's field equations offer a third picture: space is dynamic, shaped by matter and energy, neither fully absolute nor fully relational.
Key Philosophical Questions
- Can space exist without matter — is a perfect void coherent?
- Does matter define space through its relations, or does space pre-exist and contain matter?
- Is spatial extension a property of matter, or a property of the space matter occupies?
- What is "dark matter" — and does it reveal something matter does to space that ordinary matter does not?
Schools of Thought
Both space and matter exist independently; space is a real container and matter genuinely occupies it.
Space and matter are the physical universe; their relationship is exhaustively described by physics, including general relativity.
Leibniz argued space is ideal — a framework of possible relations among substances, not an independently existing void.
Neither space nor matter exist independently of mind; both are mental constructions organizing experience.
Space is a computational grid; matter is data encoded within it, and the "void" is simply unallocated memory.
Matter (prime matter + form) occupies created space; neither is self-subsistent — both depend on God for their existence.
Synthesis
Space and matter are mutually defining: matter without space has no where to be, and space without matter is empty of all content. The history of physics has progressively revealed their relationship to be more intimate than any simple container-content metaphor allows.