Our present conception of nature, concerning the ultimate constituents of the physical world and the laws and principles that govern them, is largely shaped by quantum field theory (QFT). Hence, many philosophers of science see QFT as the locus of research when they try to use current physical theory as a guide to resolving questions such as "is the world ultimately continuous, or discrete, or dual in nature?" "what is individuality?" and "what is the relation between matter and force?" Novel features of QFT have been developed since the 1950's. These features include the non-linearity of non-Abelian gauge theories and its consequences (asymptotic freedom and topological solutions). These new features also bring new philosophical implications on such issues as the nature of a vacuum, a particle, and the global features generated by QFT, a local theory. QFT also raises questions concerning the causal connections between different levels of the physical world as is embodied in the idea and technique of renormalization group and symmetry-breaking. The issues raised by these new features of QFT need very much to be incorporated into philosophy of science. In order to bring philosophers and historians of physics up to date on QFT and to set a new agenda for future research, Dr. Cao has organized a symposium that aims to analyze various formulations and understandings of the foundations of QFT. Following the symposium, Dr. Cao has organized a workshop to investigate the historical and philosophical issues associated with these formulations. Participating in this combined symposium and workshop is a stellar group of mathematicians, physicists, philosophers and historians of science. These include two Nobel Laureates, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg as well as such leaders in their respective fields as S. Coleman, R. Jackiw, D. Gross, A Wightman, A. Jaffe, M. Redhead, J. Cushing, and L. Brown. This workshop and symposium promise to promote a mutually beneficial dialog among the sci entists, mathematicians, historians and philosophers interested in foundation issues in science.
