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Inconsistency in Classical Electrodynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mathias Frisch
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Abstract

I show that the standard approach to modeling phenomena involving microscopic classical electrodynamics is mathematically inconsistent. I argue that there is no conceptually unproblematic and consistent theory covering the same phenomena to which this inconsistent theory can be thought of as an approximation; and I propose a set of conditions for the acceptability of inconsistent theories.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 525 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Arthur Fine, David Malament, Paul Teller, and Eric Winsberg, as well as the anonymous referees for this journal, for extremely helpful discussions, comments and criticisms.

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