The Effective World

• Applicant: Sebastien Rivat, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 541394621

Effective theories have taken a central place in physics during the last decades. They have been applied with remarkable success to most areas of contemporary research, from fluid dynamics and condensed matter physics to inflationary cosmology and high energy physics. Most physicists today even believe that our best current theories are most reliably formulated as effective theories and thus, as a matter of principle, as non-fundamental theories. Yet philosophers still attempt to draw interpretative lessons from physics by treating existing theories as putatively fundamental and complete theories. How should we adjust our interpretative practice if we are to take seriously the effective character of existing theories? What does the world look like according to our best current effective physics? The overarching goal of the project The Effective World is to investigate the impact of the framework of effective theories on our world picture. This goal will be tackled through three related and more specific objectives: (i) to clarify the concept of scale-relative representation afforded by effective theories; (ii) to assess the extent to which scale-relative representations are sensitive to each other across scales, and whether their content depends significantly on particular modeling interests and interpretative preferences; (iii) to unpack the partial and complex layered world picture provided by our best current effective theories.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants