In a recent article,1 Hobson defends the superiority of the field concept in quantum physics in comparison to the particle concept. His view is that if we acknowledge that the fundamental constituents of physical reality are fields, and not particles, then much of the interpretational difficulties of quantum physics would disappear. However, as will be explained more fully in this comment, quantum fields are no more fields than quantum particles are particles, so the replacement of a particle ontology (or particle and field ontology) by an all field ontology will not solve the typical quantum interpretational problems.
Let us start by considering the main reason why a quantum entity cannot be considered a particle; we will then show that the same argument applies, mutatis mutandis, to the field concept. A particle (or corpuscle) is, by definition, a system that is localized in space. This means that if a...