Quantum mechanics presents an impressive record. It became the backbone of most research in physics, led to applications such as the transistor and laser, and prompted an upheaval in the philosophy of science. This century of conquests has also been a time of ongoing debates about the foundations and interpretation of the theory, which has been referred to as the quantum controversy. This Handbook is a survey on these debates. Some of the so-called “interpretations” are not interpretations of a fixed formalism, they are different theories, thus it has been a debate about the interpretations and the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this volume, the term “history of interpretations” is used for the sake of brevity. The successive parts of the Handbook deal with the scientific and philosophical issues under debate, historical landmarks, places and contexts, historical and philosophical theses, and the proliferation of interpretations.
This chapter discusses the interpretation of quantum field theory from a historical perspective. It pays special attention to the measuring process in quantum electrodynamics, and indicates how this process is related to quantum field uncertainties, to the vacuum energy, and to the divergent calculations. Those aspects reflect, in a broader sense, a plurality of perspectives concerning the proper description of quantum phenomena, to the role of mathematics in quantum theory, and to the predictive power of physical theories. The chapter also presents some episodes from the history of quantum field theory from the 1920s to the 1960s, with an emphasis on the renormalization program of the late 1940s. Finally, it discusses how pragmatism and mathematics shaped the physicists’ views on quantum field theory.
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