THE EMERGENCE AND NECESSITY OF APRIORICS

The objective of my lecture is to argue that the principle of causality and the existence of the fundamental indivisible entities characterized by a finite set of intrinsic properties, lead necessarily to the incorporating of a priori ontology into the foundations of physics. My central claim is that elementary particle physics is incomplete since the most fundamental entities, from which the so called “elementary” particles are made of, cannot be discovered by resorting to any experimental or observational method. These entities, their intrinsic properties, and the rules of forming compounds from them must emerge from pure reason. I will also show that the needed ontology has the capacity to shed a new light on the nature of space and time emerging from their role as “multipliers” of the fundamental entities.