Tian Yu CaoConceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories
Tian Cao is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He is a Research Fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge; Senior Smithsonian Institution Fellow; Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford; and Neugebauer Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. He is author of From Current Algebra to Quantum Chromodynamics (Ccambridge, 2010); and editor of Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Field Theory (Cambridge, 1999). His research interests include the philosophy and history of science, epistemology, metaphysics, social and political philosophy, with special interest in philosophical issues related to modernity and postmodernity.
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The rise of classical field theory
Part I. The Geometrical Programme for Fundamental Interactions: 3. Einstein's route to the gravitational field
4. The general theory of relativity (GTR)
5. The geometrical programme (GP)
Part II. The Quantum Field Programme for Fundamental Interactions: 6. The rise of quantum theory
7. The formation of the conceptual foundations of quantum field theory
8. The quantum field programme (QFP)
Part III. The Gauge Field Programme for Fundamental Interactions: 9. The route to gauge fields
10. The formation of the conceptual foundations of gauge field theories
11. The gauge field programme (GFP)
12. Ontological synthesis and scientific realism
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.