What Are No-Go Theorems Good for‪?‬ MCMP

Radin Dardashti (LMU/MCMP) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "What Are No-Go Theorems Good for?". Abstract: No-go Theorems in physics have often been construed as impossibility results with respect to some goal. These results usually have had two effects on the field. Either, the no-go result effectively stopped that research programme or one or more of the assumptions involved in the derivation were questioned. In this talk I address some general features of no-go theorems and try to address the question how no-go results should be interpreted. The way they should be interpreted differs significantly from how they have been interpreted in the history of physics. More specifically, I will argue that no-go theorems should not be understood as implying the impossibility of a desired result, and therefore do not play the methodological role they purportedly do, but that they should be understood as a rigorous way to outline the methodological pathways in obtaining the desired result.