ABSTRACT
Physical events are arranged by physics in a four-dimensional manifold called space-time. This manifold is an improvement on the older manifold of “things” arranged in varying spatial patterns at varying times; and this, in turn, was an improvement upon the manifold resulting from assuming an accurate correspondence between percepts and “things”. No doubt physics would like to forget its early history, which, like that of many established institutions, is not so creditable as could be wished. But unfortunately its title to our allegiance is difficult to disentangle from its early association with naive realism; even in its most sophisticated form, it still appears as an emendation, for which naive realism supplies the text.
