Progress through Principles: An Epistemology of Foundational Assumptions Guiding Contemporary Physics

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Enno Fischer
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555155842

At the frontiers of contemporary fundamental physics theoretical proposals abound but empirical evidence is sparse. This situation has given rise to a renewed interest in scientific principles. Of particular interest are guiding principles such as the correspondence principle and the naturalness principle because they promise to advance inquiry as heuristic devices. However, no overarching epistemological analysis of guiding principles and their heuristic value in physics is available. This project will propose and develop an account of guiding principles in physics. The central hypothesis of this account is that guiding principles advance inquiry through the way they integrate descriptive and normative aspects: as supposed principles of nature they attempt to describe the object of inquiry and as principles of epistemic action they provide directives for further inquiry. The project employs this account to shed new light on the heuristic value of guiding principles. It will thus help make sense of current epistemic practices in fundamental physics research. Moreover, it will benefit the defense of those principles that help advance inquiry, and it will help indicate instances where guiding principles bear the risk of leading theory development astray. The understanding of guiding principles provided by the proposed project also promises to give a clearer view of general epistemological issues associated with the dynamics of reasoning and scientific practice where foundational assumptions are less than perfect and empirical input is sparse.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants