[deloprator2000]

All theories must begin with some axioms; fundemental assumptions taken to be true. In physics we must begin with some elementary objects, objects which can't be broken down into more fundemental objects. These objects will not be described in terms of something else, hence we won't know what they are but we will know their properties and how they behave.

The electron, according to Quantum Mechanics, is both a particle and a wave.The particle and wave aspects are simply analogies, because we don't know what an electron is, yet. All we know is the properties of the object (electron) and how this object (electron) behaves under certain conditions, we know how it interacts with other objects that don't behave like the first object (electron). Since we can tell this object apart from the others we can see it is distinct from the others, hence we give it a name, electron.

We might guess that this "electron" is made up of even more fundemental particles, strings, or something else, until we can find a theory that can do this we won't know what an electron is. In string theory the electron is simply an object (string) vibrating in a certain way in a certain multidimensional background space. Yet, this simply pushes the question of "being" from the electron to the fundemental object(s) that constitute the electron, in the aformentioned case, we would ask well what is a string?

John G.