III
The first two papers in this final part of the symposium continue in the spirit of the preceding papers, in each of which a specific problem at the interface between philosophy and modern physics was analyzed. The problem considered in Urani and Gale's paper is a minimal extension of the Special Theory of Relativity to accelerating reference frames without recourse to the General Theory. In Fraiss6's paper, quantum correlation experiments are again analyzed as before in Part II, but this time from the less prevalent viewpoint of the ramification (or many-worlds) interpretation of quantum mechanics. The paper concludes with a spirited defense of that interpretation.
The authors of the remaining two papers of the symposium consider a wider range of basic questions. After examining the roots of the particle and field concepts of modern physics in the philosophical traditions of Europe and India, Melvin attempts to express in common words what can be formulated exactly only in abstract symbols and concepts, namely the contemporary and as yet incomplete view of the physical world in terms of quantum field theory. His essay can be considered an expansion of certain aspects of the discussion in Part I of the symposium, where quantum field theory was analyzed from a methodological and conceptual viewpoint. By drawing attention to some of the problems physicists face as they approach a unified quantitative description of the cosmos in terms of this theory, the author opens the way to further philosophical analysis of this approach. In the concluding paper, Finkelstein subjects some fundamental constructs of inquiry into the nature of the cosmos -matter, space-time and logic -to close scrutiny. His examination begins within the context of modern physical theory, but he soon transcends that context and follows the quantum description of nature toward its eventual logical conclusion -a post-modern cosmology that will be devoid of such familiar concepts as the particles and fields of contemporary modern physics.