The Fundamental Importance of Discourse in Theoretical Physics

The purpose of the following paper is to demonstrate that the “limits of physics” are in a very important way determined by the conceptual framework and language of discourse that we use to describe physical reality. In this paper we examine three areas where the structure of discourse has been particularly difficult. In this regard we examine three problems, the problem of time (which is discussed in two sections of the paper), the problem of non-locality in quantum mechanics and some related general difficulties of interpretation specific to the Copenhagen school, and the concept of maximality as it is employed with respect to cosmic inflation in general relativity and quantum cosmology.