Ontological Evasions in Physics, Part 10 Renormalisation: Sweeping Infinities Under the Rug

Quantum field theory is one of physics’ most successful frameworks. Yet at its core lies a profound difficulty: when calculations are carried through, they often yield infinities—predictions of physical quantities that diverge without bound. Such results are physically meaningless, since no measurement can return infinity.

To salvage the theory, physicists developed renormalisation, a procedure that systematically cancels infinities by redefining quantities like mass and charge. The outcome is astonishingly accurate predictions. But ontologically, this is a classic evasion: the infinities themselves are never explained, only erased.

The evasive manoeuvre

Renormalisation declares certain infinities irrelevant, absorbing them into redefined parameters. Instead of confronting what the divergences reveal about relation and actualisation at quantum scales, physics introduces a technical workaround that restores calculational stability.

The manoeuvre is seductive because it works: quantum electrodynamics achieves predictions accurate to many decimal places. But the very effectiveness of renormalisation hides its ontological cost.

The ontological cost

Infinities are symptoms of a deeper misapprehension of relation. By sweeping them away, physics refuses to ask whether its ontology—fields as continuous entities, point particles, interactions at arbitrarily small scales—might itself be incoherent.

Actualisation is replaced by adjustment: relation is treated not as the source of coherence, but as a source of divergence requiring mathematical surgery. The infinities remain as ghostly reminders of an unresolved ontological misfit.

The epistemic collapse

Because renormalisation succeeds technically, physics risks mistaking practical adequacy for ontological clarity. The predictive triumph disguises the absence of explanatory grounding. The infinities are never understood, only removed. In this way, the epistemic integrity of theory is compromised: physics accepts a black-box procedure where ontology should have been rethought.

The theological return

In renormalisation, we glimpse another theological echo: infinities as glimpses of an absolute, tamed by ritual procedure. Just as theology invokes the infinite as a sign of divine transcendence, physics encounters infinities as marks of ontological excess—then neutralises them without comprehension.

A relational reframing

From a relational standpoint, infinities signal the limits of an inappropriate ontology. If relation is perspectival and actualised across scales, then treating interactions as continuous down to arbitrarily small points is misconceived. Divergence arises from imposing the wrong metaphysical scaffold.

Relational ontology replaces renormalisation with reframing: coherence emerges not from subtracting infinities but from recognising the perspectival limits of applicability. Actualisation is finite, selective, and scale-dependent; relation does not diverge into the infinite.

Conclusion

Renormalisation exemplifies ontological evasion through technical virtuosity. Infinities are swept aside rather than addressed, preserving predictive power at the cost of relational clarity. A relational reframing dissolves the problem: infinities are not realities to be cancelled, but artefacts of an ontology unwilling to confront the perspectival, finite character of relation.