Selective Realism and the Framework/Interaction Distinction: A Taxonomy of Fundamental Physical Theories

Abstract

Following the proposal of a new kind of selective structural realism that uses as a basis the distinction between framework and interaction theories, this work discusses relevant applications in fundamental physics. An ontology for the different entities and properties of well-known theories is thus consistently built. The case of classical field theories -including General Relativity as a classical theory of gravitation-is examined in detail, as well as the implications of the classification scheme for issues of realism in Quantum Mechanics. These applications also shed light on the different range of applicability of the ontic and epistemic versions of structural realism.

Structural realism and theory classification

“…Examples like this show how the framework/interaction distinction is easier to implement than the old one between principle and constructive theories, while at the same time preserving the main intuitions behind Einstein's ideas. Examples of framework theories include Newton's three laws as already discussed; special and general relativity (which were the motivation for Einstein's original classification); and, as is argued by Benitez (2019, 2023), quantum mechanics. All these theories give general frameworks or, ‘barren worlds’, which must be populated by specific force laws or interactions in order to yield a description of (some aspect of) the actual world (Benitez, 2022, p. 65).…”

“…Generally speaking, interaction theories should be easily recognisable in that they deal with 'force laws', in the sense of modelling a specific relational 2 Of all these examples, quantum mechanics and general relativity can seem like somewhat unclear cases. Once analysed, quantum mechanics is relatively easy to see as a framework for theories of interactions such as electrodynamics (see e.g., Moretti, 2018;Clifton et al, 2003;Benitez, 2019). General relativity is more subtle, being as it is both a theory of the gravitational interaction and of a dynamical space-time.…”

Scientific realism and underdetermination in quantum theory

“…11 11 See Benitez (2019) for a recent attempt to bring OSR closer to the epistemological concerns of the realism debate, which is also sensitive to the framework character of QM mentioned in Section 5.3. …”