  Space is conceived of as that substance in virtue of which statements attributing distance and direction, such as “A is to the east of B” (or “A is near to B”, “A is nearer to B than to C”, etc.)  are objectively true or false.  Space is thus an explanatory postulate: it is argued that we must postulate the existence of a new (spatial) substance to explain the fact that objects stand in spatial relations with one another. The problem is to make sense of this claim. Bhaduri (1947: 216–7) does so as follows (I paraphrase his account):