Ask a dozen physicists what a black hole is, and you may get a dozen different answers – at least if those physicists are from different sub-fields. But new philosophy research suggests that may be okay, and may even lead to more interesting findings for black holes in the future.

Such is the conclusion of Erik Curiel, who asked many different physicists across a range of research fields how they defined a black hole. Curiel works at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at Ludwig