Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:20:08.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Against the Excesses of Quantum Gravity: A Plea for Modesty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Abstract

I argue that all current research programs in quantum gravity conform to the 17th century hypothetico-deductive model of scientific inquiry, perhaps of necessity given the current state of technology. In so far as they do not recognize and advertise the shortcomings of the research method they use, they do a disservice to the integrity of science, for the method admits of far less certainty accruing to its products than one would be led to believe by the pronouncements of researchers in the area.

Type
Quantum Gravity
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I thank Rob Clifton, Matt Frank, John Hunter, Carlo Rovelli, Eric Schliesser, and Michael Strevens for penetrating comments on an earlier draft of this paper. It would have been a far poorer work than it is without their input; I remain responsible for its errors and defects. I am particularly grateful to Carlo for responding to my mildly hysterical prose with good humor, grace, patience, and (best of all) invaluable insight on virtually every aspect of the issues discussed.

References

Ashtekar, A. (1999), “Quantum mechanics of geometry”, LANL e-archive (xxx.lanl.gov) gr-qc/9901023.Google Scholar
Hawking, Stephen (1975), “Particle creation by black holes”, Communications in Mathematical Physics 43:199220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooke, Robert ([1672] 1757/1958), “Letter to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Hooke's criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 110–115. Originally published in Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London (London: A. Millar, 1757), Vol. 3, 1015.Google Scholar
Huygens, Christian ([1673a] 1958), “Letter to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Huygen's first criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 136. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 96 (July 21, 1673): 6112.Google Scholar
Huygens, Christian ([1673b] 1958), “Letter to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Huygens' second criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 148. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 97 (October 6, 1673): 6112.Google Scholar
Huygens, Christian ([1690] 1912/1962), Treatise on Light. Translated by S. Thompson. New York: Dover Press. Reprint of the 1912 Macmillan and Co. ed.Google Scholar
Maldacena, Juan (2000), “Gravity, particle physics, and their unification”, LANL e-archive (xxx.lanl.gov) hep-th/0002092.Google Scholar
Maxwell, J.C. ([1864] 1965), “A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field”, in The Scientific Papers of J.C. Maxwell, Vol. 1. New York: Dover, 526583. Originally read before the Royal Society in December, 1864, and subsequently published in The Royal Society Transactions, Vol. CLV.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac ([1671/1672] 1958), “Letter of February 6, 1671/1672, to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, outlining Newton's researches on light and color”, in Newton 1958, 116135. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 80 (February 16, 1671/1672): 30753087.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac ([1672a] 1958), “Letter to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Newton's response to Hooke's criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 116135. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 88 (November 18, 1672): 50845103.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac ([1672b] 1958), “Letter to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Newton's response to Pardies' second criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 99103[106–109]. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 85 (July 15, 1672): 50145018. English translation of the original Latin, from which some lines are omitted, originally published in Hutton, Shaw, and Pearson (eds.), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Abridged, (London, 1809), Vol. 1, 738–743.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac ([1673a] 1958), “Letter of April 3, 1673, to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Newton's response to Huygens' first criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 143146. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 97 (October 6, 1673): 61086111.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac ([1673b] 1958), “Letter to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, containing Newton's response to Huygens' second criticism of Newton's doctrine of light”, in Newton 1958, 137142. Originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 96 (July 21, 1673): 60876092.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac ([1687] 1726/1995), Philosophiœ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 3rd ed. (1726). Translated by Andrew Motte, originally published in 1727. Reprint. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, Isaac (1958), Isaac Newton's Papers & Letters on Natural Philosophy. Edited by I. B. Cohen. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rovelli, Carlo (1998), “Strings, loops and others: A critical survey of the present approaches to quantum gravity”, LANL e-archive (xxx.lanl.gov) gr-qc/9803024.Google Scholar
Rovelli, Carlo (1999), “Quantum spacetime: What do we know?”, LANL e-archive (xxx.lanl.gov) gr-qc/9903045. Reprinted in Craig Callender and Nick Huggett (eds.), Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).Google Scholar
Rovelli, Carlo and Smolin, L. (1995), “Discreteness of area and volume in quantum gravity”, Nuclear Physics B442:593622. Erratum: Nuclear Physics B456 (1995): 734.10.1016/0550-3213(95)00150-QCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, H. (n.d.a), “Further considerations on Newton's method”, unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Stein, H. (n.d.b), “On metaphysics and method in Newton”, unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Strominger, A. and Vafa, G. (1996), “Microscopic origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy”, Physical Review Letters B379:99104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Susskind, Leonard (1999), “Strings, black holes and holography”, lecture delivered at the Fifth Conference on the History and Foundations of General Relativity [July 8, 1999] at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN.Google Scholar
Wald, R. (1994), Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime and Black Hole Thermodynamics. Chicago Lectures in Physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar