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Independence from Future Theories: A Research Strategy in Quantum Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Alexander Rueger
Alexander Rueger*
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
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Renormalization in Quantum Field Theory (QFT) has frequently been regarded, by philosophers as well as by scientists, as an exemplary case of bad methodological behavior. The feeling that renormalization was somehow an illegitimate way to extract results, an ad hoc maneuver without an independent rationale, was (and is) common among physicists and philosophers, who wonder, at the same time, about the unprecedented accuracy of the empirical results achieved by the illegitimate method. Teller (1989) has recently tried to dispel the air of illegitimacy around this technique. His lucid presentation, however, leaves one wondering why any sufficiently well-informed person could ever have thought of renormalization as an ad hoc move.

Part of the reason, I think, is that renormalization — or so the common view goes — came to the rescue of a sadly lingering theory, the pre-1947 Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). A theory with such a bad record of solved empirical and conceptual problems could simply not be correct.

Type
Part IV. Quantum Theory
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1990 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1990 , 1990 , pp. 202 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1990

Footnotes

1

I gratefully acknowledge discussions with J. Audretsch and M. Carrier (University of Konstanz).

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