[FOM] "Hidden" contradictions

Prof. Ranjit Nair director at cpfs.res.in
Sat Aug 17 06:01:16 EDT 2013



Let's not 
forget that Hilbert’s 6th problem was the mathematical


treatment of the axioms of physics. Also that the question of
the 

completeness of physics in 20 years has been the subject
of bets by 

Stephen Hawking. He conceded his first such bet in
his Dirac lecture 
in 
2002 using Gödel's theorem to argue
that if mathematics is 

'incomplete', physics has to be so too.
The same bet offered in 
Delhi in 
2001 was taken up by me and
since the earlier concession 
was generic in 
nature, it follows
that the later bet stands conceded 
too. However it 
appears
that Hawking has reneged, after recovering 
his optimism about the
possible completeness of physics, in work with 
Hertog, Hartle and
others. It is true that physics often employs theories 
that are
literally false, such as recovering the classical limit by 
setting
Planck's constant equal to zero (the correspondence principle of 
Niels Bohr), when in fact the constant is what it is, a non-zero
constant. 
The use of counterfactual approximations evident in e.g.
the 
"effective field theory" approach to quantum field
theory. No 
further elaboration is required.

/>_______________________________________

Professor Ranjit
Nair 

Director 
Centre for Philosophy & Foundations of
Science 

P.B. No. 4017, Malaviya Nagar P.O. 
New Delhi
110017 
/>India 

Tel. +91 11 65951738 / 46170795 
Cell +91 
9810332846 / 8826585999 
e-mail:
director at cpfs.res.in 
href="mailto:irector.cpfs at gmail.com">irector.cpfs at gmail.com

/>president at wias.in 
URL
href="http://www.cpfs.res.in/">http://www.cpfs.res.in/

/>/>http://goidirectory.nic.in/ministries_categories.php?ct=39#groupE060


/>
This message and any attachments included are
intended 
solely for 
the addressee/s and the information
conveyed is 
privileged and 
confidential. If perchance you are
not the person/s 
to whom this message 
is directed, any copying
or distribution is 
strictly interdicted and you 
are advised to
delete the message 
forthwith. Furthermore, the usual 
caveats
about e-mail exchanges 
apply. Such communications are not wholly 
secure and while every 
effort is made to scan outgoing messages
for 
viruses and other 
malware, you are also advised to be
vigilant and help us 
by 
notifying any discrepancies that come
to light, for us to take remedial 

action.________________________________________________ 
/>/>From:"Timothy Y. Chow" 
To:"Foundations of

/>Mathematics" 
Date:Thu, August 15, 2013 8:05 am 
/>/>Subject:Re: [FOM] "Hidden" contradictions 


/>/>> On Wed, 14 Aug 2013, Mark Steiner wrote: 
>> I 
/>appreciate this response. However, my physicist
friends tell me that 
/>/>>> the theory known as QED is
thought to be inconsistent, but 

people use it 
>>
anyway, with great success in 
predictions. I 
think what this
means is 
>> the claim 
that there is no way to 
formalize QED in a consistent 
>> 
axiomatic system. If
this is 
right, then there is a sense in which 

>>
formal systems do 
play some kind of role in physics. 

> 
> The alleged 
inconsistency of QED is a 
complicated topic that has been 
> 
discussed in great
detail 
before on FOM and I don't think we want to 
/>>
rehash it all 
here, but I'll just say that even if we grant the 
(somewhat 
/>> debatable) propositions that (1) "QED is
thought 
to be 
inconsistent" and 
> (2) this means
that "there is 
/>no way to formalize QED in a consistent 
> axiomatic 
system", 
then really all this shows is
the exact opposite: 
/>> namely, that 
formal systems *do
not* play an important role 
in physics. 
> If 
they
did, then the physicists would be 
compelled to abandon QED. The 
/>> only role formal systems are 
playing here is in framing
certain 
/>> philosophical 
discussions *about* physics.

> 
> 
Tim 
> 
_______________________________________________ 
> 
FOM 
mailing list 
> FOM at cs.nyu.edu 
> 
/>http://www.cs.nyu.edu/mailman/listinfo/fom 
> 


/>/> 


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </pipermail/fom/attachments/20130817/5ff52ba1/attachment.html>


More information about the FOM mailing list