A Rational Cosmology: Why Force Fields Are Abstractions Only

Essay LVIII

This is Essay LVIII 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.

From the way in which the model of force fields is arrived at, it can be inferred that even the very process of defining an electric field depends on the use of two entities, the entity which exerts a given force and the entity upon which a force is exerted. (Of course, the test particle also can be described as having its own field, which affects the original field-exerting entity.)

Additionally, the model of a field only has physical consequences when an entity is at a given point which the field is said to encompass. That is, when an entity is present "within the field" of another, there is a force exerted. When no such entity is present at a given point "within the field," all that the field model describes is a potentiality, a knowledge that, if an entity of a given nature were there, it would have a given force exerted upon it.

This is useful knowledge to have in order to anticipate positions and behaviors not yet in existence, and the field idea provides convenient symbols and shortcuts to expressing it.

However, this model should not be mistaken for an actual physical existent. The only actual existents are the entities themselves and the forces that they exert. When there is no entity for the field-exerting object to act upon, there can be no force, and the field remains only a convenient abstraction without any physical existence in itself.