Book Review: 'Background Independence in Classical and Quantum Gravity', by James Read

TL;DR

This review discusses James Read's book on background independence in classical and quantum gravity, highlighting its precise notions and evaluations across various spacetime theories, and offering critical perspectives.

Contribution

The review summarizes and critically assesses Read's systematic approach to defining and evaluating background independence in gravity theories.

Findings

Provides a detailed overview of background independence concepts

Evaluates the application of background independence in different theories

Highlights strengths and disagreements with the book's approach

Abstract

This is a review of James Read's insightful book, Background Independence in Classical and Quantum Gravity. The book introduces various notions of background-independence which it then makes precise, and uses to make verdicts about background-independence on a wide range of examples of spacetime theories in both classical and quantum gravity. This short book is, in several ways, a worthy example of how technical philosophy of physics ought to be done. I first discuss the content, then raise a number points where I disagree with the book.