The Meaning Of Quantum Field Theory And Semantic Analysis

Relativity theory and quantum mechanics is the significant theoretical foundation of the modern physics, even going so far as to the natural science as a whole. Later, Quantum field theory is established by introduce special theory of relativity to quantum mechanics by Dirac, which is the mathematical and the conceptual framework of the contemporary elementary particle physics. Relativity theory and quantum mechanics have long been of interest to a number of philosophers of science, as well as in the recent several decades quantum field theory has attracted more and more attention. However, the philosophical considerations of quantum field theory are seldom in china. The thesis attempts to propose an analysis of the meaning of quantum field theory by means of the semantic analysis methods that mainly include the metaphor analysis method, the reference theory and the contextual analysis method, which provide a systematic analysis of the meaning of quantum field theory and an analysis of the vague identity of the quantum objects in quantum field theory. The application of these analysis methods plays a very important role in revealing the meaning of quantum field theory.This thesis includes introduction, five chapters of systematic elaboration and concluding remark.The first chapter is the general survey of quantum field theory-the theoretical foundation, the formalism and the philosophical issues. This chapter is the basis of the thesis, which describes the mathematical and physical foundation of the formalism of quantum field theory, and gives a brief account of the classic interpretation on quantum field theory.The second chapter is the metaphor analysis of quantum field theory. This chapter gives a systematical presentation of the scientific metaphor, the analysis method of the metaphor, and the metaphoric thoughts of quantum field theory. These metaphoric thoughts consist of the metaphoric thought in the basic concept of quantum field theory, in the ontological inquiry of quantum field theory, and in the scientific analogy of quantum field theory. From what have been discussed above, it summarize the characteristics and the functions of metaphor analysis in the development of quantum field theory and the defense function of the scientific realism in quantum field theory.The third chapter is the semantic analysis of reference theory in quantum field theory. This chapter systematically describes the description theory of reference and the direct reference theory, and introduces a kind of analytical methods which can refer to quantum field. According to the thesis, In the study of physical reality, people are not only concerned with what we have, but also with what concept we need to presuppose when we discuss the existence. Therefore, when referring to the basic entity in the quantum field theory, we can presuppose several concepts, then we can determine the basic entity of the quantum field theory in this group of concepts. The presupposed concept helps us to determine that either we descriptively refer to the basic entity or we direct refer to the basic entity. This chapter gives the way that can descriptively refer to quantum field and the way that can direct refer to the quantum field, then discusses the identity of reference in quantum field theory.The fourth chapter is the problem of the identity and the vagueness of quantum particles in quantum field theory. This chapter introduces the identity among the quantum particles in terms of Leibniz principle, and sums up the relationships among the identity, the indistinguishability and the individuality. Through the analysis of the identity of quantum particles, we obtain the non-individuality of quantum particles, On this basis we introduce some kinds of ways to sign or name quantum particles. In traditional philosophy, almost all the analysis of the vague objects and the vague identity are discussed in the classical macroscopic objects, so it may left out something in default of taking the microcosmic object into account. The uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics plays an important role in discussing the vague object and the vague identity.The fifth chapter is the contextual analysis of quantum field theory. Quantum field theory is one kind of mathematical tools that study the interaction of the particles, along with the development of quantum field theory, it has gradually developed the quantum electrodynamics that describes the electromagnetic interaction, the unified electro-weak theory that describes the unified electromagnetic interaction and weak interaction, and the quantum chromodynamics that describes the strong interaction. This chapter points out that the contextual analysis consists of the syntactic analysis, the semantic analysis and the pragmatic analysis, on this basis reveals the basic contextual structure of quantum field theory. From the perspective of holism, this chapter in accordance with the whole development history gives quantum electrodynamics, unified electro-weak theory and quantum chromodynamics a syntactic analysis, a semantic analysis and a pragmatic analysis, respectively, and then summarizes the characteristics of the contextual analysis of quantum field theory.Concluding remarks, a summary of the thesis, summarize each chapter and based on this emphasize on the important role of the semantic analysis methods in quantum field theory.