A Rational Cosmology: The Model of Force Fields

Essay LVII

This is Essay LVII of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

A common proposition put forth by physicists with regard to many fundamental forces which occur at a distance, be they gravitational, electrical, or magnetic, is the idea of a "field" created by an entity which is capable of exerting a certain type of force.

When interpreted correctly, this idea is quite useful and cosmologically correct, yet great mistakes have been made with regard to it, especially by empiricist-positivist post-Classical physicists who have decided to ignore philosophy and treat fields in a manner that yields evident logical contradictions.

The mistakes in the interpretation of fields are fundamentally philosophical, yet they have resulted in whole absurd physical theories, including scores of imaginary massless particles thought to be responsible for certain types of fields, invisible lines which cover all of the universe and are more than the paper models they ought to be, and the multiply flawed idea that a single electric charge somewhere can instantaneously bring about a change in the entire "universal fabric."

Before discussing what a field is not, however, we should first discover what a field is. A hint to the answer can be found in the fact that the common derivation of the very concept involves the use of a "test particle," either of a given unit mass or a given unit charge, which is placed a certain distance from a force-exerting entity.

The force exerted upon the test particle at this position becomes known as the strength of the field at said position. That is, the electric field idea merely concisely expresses the knowledge that for every unit of mass, charge, etc., at this location, a force of X Newtons will be experienced, where X becomes the magnitude of the field.