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Department of Philosophy

Forgione defends his PhD, "History and Philosophy of Feynman's Electrodynamics: from the Absorber Theory of Radiation to Feynman Diagrams"

Forgione also recently published two papers:

Forgione, Marco. "Feynman’s Spacetime View in Quantum Electrodynamics." with Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics.

Forgione, Marco. "The philosophical underpinning of the absorber theory of radiation." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72 (2020): 91-106.

Disertation Abstract

In this dissertation I individuate and discuss Richard Feynman's overall spacetime view. I argue that the absorber theory of radiation, the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, all share the overall spacetime view as a common conceptual framework. Even though this framework changed with the different theories, its most general form can be characterized as looking at physics phenomena in their spacetime entirety. I show how the absorber theory of radiation is based on the intertwining of past and future within a closed system of absorbers and emitters. I show how the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics considers all the possible configurations within the initial and final states. I address how the overall spacetime view fits with Feynman diagrams and perturbation theory. Such a conceptual framework, I maintain, led Feynman to look at quantum phenomena from a new and revolutionary perspective, and to the formulation of one of our best scientific theories.


Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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