We use the term 'space' in our daily life but there is an important question we need to ask ourselves "what is space" this question seems so simple, yet it led to so much controversy and arguments starting from philosophers of the 17th century to scientists and the brightest minds of our time. In the 21st century the two main arguable ideas about space are the opposing ideas of "relationism" and "absolutism" but these ideas way go back to the 18th century.
Relationism
Is there space between the stars? The relationist German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz argued that space is the spatial relations between things for example if we placed a book on a chair we would say the book is on top of the chair and if we found a cat next to a tree, we can say the cat is three meters away from the tree that means space is found relatively based on our universe hence if our universe was destroyed space would not exist.
Absolutism
The absolutist English philosopher Samuel Clarke argues that space is like a giant container that holds universe, stars, planets, us and everything together. It's a sort of substance that is anywhere.
What was more astonishing is that Clarke stated that space is divine as space is prove of God's presence in the world. In a way, space is God. For Clarke, if our universe were destroyed, space would be left behind. Just as you can’t delete God, you can’t delete space.
Based on my perspective both of them have a plausible reason but if it's a must for me to choose I would rather go with the theory of relationism cause everything that can be measured in our daily life is based on/ relative to another thing so without the universe there would be no space and vice versa.
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