Quantum Field Theory in a Semiotic Perspective

Massimo Leone

Damiano Anselmi

H. G. Dosch, V. F. Müller, Norman Sieroka

Examining relativistic quantum eld theory we claim that its description of subnuclear phenomena can be understood most adequately from a semiotic point of view. The paper starts o with a concise and non-technical outline of the rmly based aspects of relativistic quantum eld theories. The particular methods, by which these dierent aspects have to be accessed, can be described as distinct facets of quantum eld theory. They dier with respect to the rela-tion between quantum elds and associated particles, and, as we shall argue, should be interpreted as complementary (semiotic) codes. Viewing physical theories as symbolic constructions already came to the fore in the middle of the nineteenth century with the emancipation of the classical theory of the electromagnetic eld from mechanics; most notably, as we will point out, with the work of Helmholtz, Hertz, Poincare, and later on Weyl. Since the epistemological questions posed there are heightened with regard to quantum eld theory, we considerably widen their approach and relate it to recent discussions in the philosophy of science, like structural realism and quasi-autonomous domains.

Baranna Baker

Abstract Quantum physics describes a strange, but exquisitely beautiful world in which science and the philosophical discipline of semiotics come into a perfect union with one another. Quantum physics describes the underlying basis of the realities of our world’s physical foundations. Semiotics explains the way in which we interact with this world. It is only through a synthesis of these two ways of knowledge that we can possibly hope to know this marvelous, awe-inspiring, yet puzzling world we live in and how our interaction with it plays a part in its existence as we experience it. Heisenberg’s concept of probability is essential to an understanding of this process. Through the process of semiosis, we create an entire world out of probabilities. What quantum physics indicates about how we influence this world in a semiotic fashion is of prime importance in understanding who we are as semiotic animals, the only animals who consciously use signs.

Eric Laenen