Lets start from experimental data. What is an electron, what do
we know about an electron? It is too small to touch or see or
smell. Everything we know about an electron comes from several
levels of proxies. We end up measuring a track circle in a
magnetic field and get e/m, consistently for different
"electrons" and we do the millikan oil drop and get e and then
we can assign a mass to these manifestations consistently. That
is all we have for the electron, it has a mass m_e measured and
a charge e, measured. Nature has been good to us and a working
theory exists for QED. Mathematics is a tool, it can describe
and predict measurements but it is not something that creates
reality. Reality is what one measures . If the theory predicts,
it does not matter if it goes into a yoga position to do so, as
long as it can predict consistently. They want to call them bare
and dressed mass? Fine. Who can measure anything more than that
the measured mass is m_e and and the measured charge e? Better
theories/computations m