Philosophical Analysis, Classical Electrodynamics Consistency Problem

M. Frisch argues that classical electrodynamics concerning the interactions between particles and fields is internally inconsistent, which gives rise to suspicions of the reasonable status of classic electrodynamics and the theory-judging criterion of logic. His arguments have received increasing attentions among philosophers of physics and invited many attacks. Based on the Lorentz force law and the essential prescription that an electromagnetic field exerts a force on an electric charge in the field, this paper discusses Frisch's arguments, other's criticisms and his defenses, demonstrating that ignoring the effect of the self-field on the charge itself is not consistent with the standard concept of electromagnetic field. The paper concludes that Frisch's arguments are not plausible, and classical electrodynamics has not any internally logical inconsistency in this aspect although there are some other conceptual problems in it.