Reflections on the Foundations of Quantum Theory

Steven Weinberg

This is a talk presented at the conference ``Historical and Philosophical Reflections on the Foundations of Quantum Field Theory,'' at Boston University, March 1996. It will be published in the proceedings of this conference.

onward. I begin, as earlier, with a long section on research, followed by a section on personal reflections. Although my interests have changed somewhat, I follow the same main seven divisions I used earlier: foundations of physics; theory of measurement; decision theory, foundations of probability, and causality; foundations of psychology; philosophy of language; education and computers; and philosophy and science.

Alfred Landé, E. Richard Cohen

Tian Yu Cao

Quantum field theory is a powerful language for the description of the subatomic constituents of the physical world and the laws and principles that govern them. This book contains up-to-date in-depth analyses, by a group of eminent physicists and philosophers of science, of our present understanding of its conceptual foundations, of the reasons why this understanding has to be revised so that the theory can go further, and of possible directions in which revisions may be promising and productive. These analyses will be of interest to graduate students and research workers in physics who want to know about the foundational problems of their subject. The book will also be of interest to professional philosophers, historians and sociologists of science, because it contains much material for metaphysical and methodological reflections, for historical and cultural analyses, and for sociological analyses of the way in which various factors contribute to the way the foundations are revised.

D. I. Blokhint︠s︡ev