Is the Geometric Trinity of Gravity a Genuine Case of Underdetermination?
Abstract It is a striking fact that the theories of the so-called geometric trinity of gravity can model the same gravitational effects with such diverse geometric tools as curvature, torsion, and nonmetricity. Building on Wolf et al. (2024), this contribution clarifies and critiques state-ofthe-art responses to this underdetermination: conventionalism, discriminatory approaches such as Ockhamism and (arguably) functionalism, and reinterpretational common core and overarching approaches. Except for Ockhamism, no realist solution has been convincingly articulated. The future of the metric-affine structure that accommodates the geometric trinity seems to lie not in empirically equivalent reformulations but in heuristics of theory building.
Authors
- Ruward A. Mulder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9684-6267)
Institutions
- University of Cambridge (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Philosophy of Science
- Published
- 2026-06-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2026.10230
- Primary Topic
- Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00