Talk: Francisco Calderón (Universitiy of Michigan)

Title:

The (beta) decay of effective realism

Abstract:

Effective realists respond to the pessimistic meta-induction by identifying and isolating the parts of a quantum field theory worth believing in. To do so, they appeal to the Wilsonian renormalization group and the effective field theory framework, two of the most sophisticated tools of the particle physicist's arsenal. In this talk, I argue that effective realism is too stringent because it deems non-renormalizable theories unfit for realist commitment. Although the view accounts for the empirical successes of renormalizable theories like the standard model of particle physics, Fermi's theory of beta decay is so successful that a realist should care about it despite being non-renormalizable. I then construct an argument concluding that non-renormalizable theories are trustworthy by realist standards. However, one of my worries about it, applying to any other attempt to modify effective realism to concede my objection, is that it can no longer respond to the pessimistic meta-induction.