  Robert DiSalle (1994) suggests that the correct response to the hole argument is that the structure of spacetime be accepted as existent despite its failure to supervene on the reality of spacetime points. A similar view has been proposed by Carl Hoefer, who argues that the problems for spacetime substantivalism turn on the “ascription of primitive identity to space-time points” (1996, 11). Hence, it seems that the insistence on interpreting spacetime in terms of an ontology of underlying entities and their properties is what causes the problems for realism about spacetime. This is a restatement of the position developed by Stein (1968) in his famous exchange with Grünbaum, according to which spacetime is neither a substance, not a set of relations between substances, but a structure in its own right. Similarly, Oliver Pooley (2007) argues that eliminativism about individual spacetime points can be avoided without any tension with General Relativity, if it is accepted that the facts about their identity and diversity is grounded in relations they bear to each other. His sophisticated substantivalism allows that spacetime points be individuated relationally and not independently of the metric field. This means embracing contextual individuality grounded in relational structure. See also Cassirer who says: “To such a [spacetime] point also no being in itself can be ascribed; it is constituted by a definite aggregate of relations and consists in this aggregate.” (1936, 195)