A New Realism in Physical Theory

Abstract

Realism is not a new idea even to theoretical physicists, and the development of physical theory involves a continuous approximation to a structure isomorphous with the facts. The aim of this talk is to draw attention to a particular aspect in which recent theories try to improve on their predecessors—by a lessened reliance on the fallacy of the isolated system. It is widely accepted that the natural world is in some sense real.