Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Photographs of the conference
- Introduction: Conceptual issues in quantum field theory
- Part One Philosophers' interest in quantum field theory
- Part Two Three approaches to the foundations of quantum field theory
- Part Three
- Part Four Mathematics, statistics and quantum field theory
- Part Five Quantum field theory and space-time
- Part Six
- 16 What is quantum field theory, and what did we think it was?
- 17 Comments
- Part Seven Renormalization group
- Part Eight Non-Abelian gauge theory
- Part Nine The ontology of particles or fields
- Part Ten
- Name index
- Subject index
17 - Comments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Photographs of the conference
- Introduction: Conceptual issues in quantum field theory
- Part One Philosophers' interest in quantum field theory
- Part Two Three approaches to the foundations of quantum field theory
- Part Three
- Part Four Mathematics, statistics and quantum field theory
- Part Five Quantum field theory and space-time
- Part Six
- 16 What is quantum field theory, and what did we think it was?
- 17 Comments
- Part Seven Renormalization group
- Part Eight Non-Abelian gauge theory
- Part Nine The ontology of particles or fields
- Part Ten
- Name index
- Subject index
Summary
Comments by Laurie M. Brown
I shall assume that I was invited to contribute to this symposium-workshop as an historian of recent physics; any ‘philosophical’ inferences will be unintended. In order to comment on Steve Weinberg's talk, I expected to have the text a few weeks in advance, which did not happen; but Steve kindly supplied a list of some writings on which he would base his talk:
1. Chapter 1 of the recently published (1995) first volume of ‘The Quantum Theory of Fields’ (QFT).
2. The well-known article in Daedalus (1977) called ‘The search for unity: Notes for a history of quantum field theory.’
3. ‘The ultimate structure of matter,’ in A Passion for Physics - Essays in Honor of Geoffrey Chew (1985).
4. The (1993) book ‘Dreams of a Final Theory,’ especially Chapters 5 and 8.
5. ‘Night thoughts of a quantum physicist,’ Bull Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences 69, No. 3, p. 51 (1995).
6. ‘Nature itself,’ an essay in Chapter 27 of Twentieth Century Physics, a recently (1995) published compendium. The same chapter has parallel essays by Philip Anderson and John Ziman.
7. ‘Conference summary,’ in Proc. XXVI Intern. Conf. on High Energy Physics (AIP 1993).
In general, I did not detect appreciable differences in the writings I consulted, which extend from 1977 to 1995, over nearly two decades. This may say something about the progress (or lack thereof) in fundamental physics during that time interval.
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- Information
- Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Field Theory , pp. 252 - 263Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999