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Philosophical foundations of effective field theories

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Abstract

This survey covers some of the main philosophical debates raised by the framework of effective field theories during the last decades. It is centered on three issues: whether effective field theories underpin a specific realist picture of the world, whether they support an anti-reductionist picture of physics, and whether they provide reasons to give up the ultimate aspiration of formulating a final and complete physical theory. Reviewing the past and current literature, we argue that effective field theories do not give convincing reasons to adopt a particular stance towards these speculative issues. They hold good prospects for asking ontologically perspicuous and sensible questions about currently accessible domains. With respect to more fundamental questions, however, the only certainty is provisional and instrumental: effective theories are currently indispensable for conducting fruitful scientific research.

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Data Availability Statement

This manuscript has no associated data or the data will not be deposited. [Authors’ comment: Data has not been collected or used during this work.]

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Acknowledgements

We warmly thank Thomas Duguet and his colleagues at the Espace de Structure Nucléaire Théorique for many interesting discussions on the topics of this review, as well as two reviewers for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Sébastien Rivat

  2. CEA-Saclay, IRFU/Larsim, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    Alexei Grinbaum

Authors
  1. Sébastien Rivat
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  2. Alexei Grinbaum
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Correspondence to Sébastien Rivat.

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Communicated by T. Duguet

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Rivat, S., Grinbaum, A. Philosophical foundations of effective field theories. Eur. Phys. J. A 56, 90 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00089-w

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