The Philosophy Behind Physics

Luis de la Peña

Max Planck, Walter Henry Johnston

Mohamed Saladin El Naschie

By religiously adhering to physics in spacetime and taking the final verdict of N.D. Mermin’s Ithaca interpretation of quantum mechanics seriously, Hardy’s paradox is completely resolved. It is then concluded that logical and mathematically consistent physical theories must be put in spacetime related formalism such as noncommutative geometry and E-infinity theory to avoid quantum paradoxes. At a minimum, we should employ the philosophy behind consistent quantum interpretation such as that of the famous Ithaca interpretation of D. Mermin.

W. V. Houston

B. Harrow

Hans Christian Öttinger

All men by nature desire to know, states Aristotle in the famous first sentence of his Metaphysics. Knowledge about fundamental particles and interactions, that is, knowledge about the deepest aspects of matter, is certainly high if not top on the priority list, not only for physicists and philosophers. The goal of the present book is to contribute to this knowledge by going beyond the usual presentations of quantum field theory in physics textbooks, both in mathematical approach and by critical reflections inspired by epistemology, that is, by the branch of philosophy also referred to as the theory of knowledge. Hopefully, the present book motivates physicists to appreciate philosophical ideas. Epistemology and the philosophy of the evolution of science often seem to lag behind science and to describe the developments a posteriori. As philosophy here has a profound influence on the actual shaping of an image of fundamental particles and their interactions, our development should stimulate the curiosity and imagination of physicists. This book can be used as a textbook on quantum field theory for students of physics or as a monograph for philosophers and physicists interested in the epistemological foundations of particle physics. The benefits of an approach resting on philosophical foundations is twofold: the reader is stimulated to critical thinking and the entire story flows very naturally, thus removing all the mysteries from quantum field theory.