Progress through Principles

At the frontiers of contemporary fundamental physics theoretical proposals abound and empirical input is hard to get by. This situation has given rise to a renewed interest in scientific principles. However, the concept of scientific principle is notoriously ambiguous, referring to widely differing kinds of physical statements. This project examines the epistemology of scientific principles in fundamental physics by looking at the roles that such principles play in advancing scientific inquiry.
The project focuses on the speculative and heuristic role of so-called ‘guiding principles’. Sometimes physicists elevate assumptions to the status of such guiding principle, even if the evidential status of the assumption is not settled. For instance, the naturalness principle in high-energy physics states that independent parameters of a theory should not be finely tuned. Many physicists have believed that the Standard Model Higgs boson violates this principle, and they have used the naturalness principle as a guideline for developing new theoretical proposals such as supersymmetry.
Looking at the naturalness principle and other case studies in fundamental physics, specifically in high-energy physics, the project addresses the following questions: What are guiding principles? How do guiding principles differ from other kinds of principles? How do such principles help advance inquiry? Under what circumstances do guiding principles fail? How are guiding principles justified?

For further details and publications see Enno Fischer’s personal website (https://ennofischer.weebly.com/)