Laura Ruetsche: Baseless Speculation

At the risk of infuriating the audience, I’m hoping to talk about what exactly an "emergent" or "nonnfundamental" ontology for particle physics could possibly be. My aim is to articulate (or exorcise) a persistent dissatisfaction, in some sense directed at David Wallace, with appeals made to emergent/nonfundamental entities in various parts of the foundations of physics literature. It's not obvious how to make sense of such entities, or how to argue about whether to endorse them, in the absence of agreement either about what's fundamental or about what it is to be spatiotemporally located. A striking counterpoint here is the contemporary metaphysics literature about fundamentality and emergence, much of which seems unfolds in the scope of the assumption that we know what the fundamental entities are, and they’re a lot like the particles of Lucretius.

Foundations of Quantum Field Theory: 2019 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference
June 12 - 14, 2019
Laura Ruetsche,​ University of Michigan

[charlesdurrett]

An excellent talk, Laura! Natural and refreshing. A gem like this is exactly why I care about Rotman Institute. - A Missouri farmer.