Rietdijk–Putnam argument

In philosophy, the Rietdijk–Putnam argument, named after C. Wim Rietdijk [nl] and Hilary Putnam, uses 20th-century findings in physics – specifically in special relativity – to support the philosophical position known as four-dimensionalism.

[3] Roger Penrose[4] advanced a form of this argument that has been called the Andromeda paradox in which he points out that two people walking past each other on the street could have very different present moments.

The "paradox" consists of two observers who are, from their conscious perspective, in the same place and at the same instant having different sets of events in their "present moment".

Howard Stein[5] and Steven F. Savitt[6] note that in relativity the present is a local concept that cannot be extended to global hyperplanes.

Furthermore, N. David Mermin[7] states: That no inherent meaning can be assigned to the simultaneity of distant events is the single most important lesson to be learned from relativity.