Associated with the Minkowski Institute in Montreal, Minkowski Institute Press, which has published 102 books (as of August 2026), invites contributions to the volume “Truth in Physics: On the Nature of Physical Theories”.
The reasons for publishing this volume are summarized below (and in more detail at the above site).
If interested, reply to mip[at]minkowskiinstitute.com
Vesselin Petkov
One of the Founders and current
Director of Minkowski Institute
Montreal, Canada
The main motivation for this volume is the concern that meta-theoretical misconceptions may be hindering major breakthroughs in fundamental physics. Despite the efforts of many brilliant physicists, and despite unprecedented advancements in applied physics and technology that allow for ultra-precise experiments, fundamental physics has not seen a revolution on the scale of relativity and quantum mechanics.
An example of such a misconception is the inadequate view-held by some physicists-that physical theories are merely descriptions of phenomena, telling us nothing certain about the world because different theories can describe the same phenomena. Part of the art of doing physics is determining whether certain theories are indeed ‘just descriptions’-like the Newtonian, Lagrangian, and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics-or whether they represent real features of the world.
Consider an even more specific example: starting with Hermann Minkowski, many physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers have regarded spacetime as a real four-dimensional world, whereas others, starting with Poincare’, have viewed it as a ‘mathematical continuum.’ Those who argued – explicitly or implicitly – that spacetime is not physically real because it is nothing more than a mathematical space fail to answer even the self-evident question: How could a mathematician announce the introduction of a mere mathematical space with such excitement?
Having an adequate view of the nature of spacetime is crucial for fundamental physics, because it has not been clearly realized that the physics of a three-dimensional world is profoundly and radically different from the physics of a four-dimensional world. In a three-dimensional world, physics deals with the motion and interactions of three-dimensional bodies. In a four-dimensional world, physics deals with interrelations between worldlines (or worldtubes in the case of extended bodies) and “static” deformations of curved (non-geodesic) worldtubes; as Minkowski put it: “The whole world presents itself as resolved into such worldlines, and I want to say in advance, that in my understanding the laws of physics can find their most complete expression as interrelations between these worldlines.” It is incorrect even to say that a particle follows a timelike geodesic worldline because, in spacetime, the particle itself is a timelike geodesic worldline.