Effective Theories Without Fiction: Interpretive Discipline for Effective Field Theory

Effective field theory (EFT) is a controlled framework for organizing reliable predictions across scales. Despite its formal clarity, EFT is frequently accompanied by interpretive narratives that promote representation-dependent intermediates—such as integrated-out degrees of freedom, Wilson coefficients, regulators, and perturbative substructures—to the status of physical entities. This paper argues that such promotion is unnecessary and often produces category errors. Using the Non-Ontological Intermediate Principle (NOIP), we separate invariant physical content from calculational scaffolding and provide a compact interpretive hygiene procedure for keeping EFT discourse aligned with what the formalism actually licenses. NOIP does not modify EFT’s dynamics, predictive structure, or empirical success; it functions as a methodological constraint on ontological commitment. The result is a conservative clarification that preserves EFT practice while preventing reification of representation-bound intermediates.