کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
1161562 | 1490433 | 2014 | 13 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
• Cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions.
• I argue that cosmology is distinctively concerned with what data could in principle be collected by a single observer.
• I discuss sceptically the appeal to the cosmological principle as a way of breaking the under-determination.
I discuss how modern cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions. I emphasise cosmology's concern with what data could in principle be collected by a single observer (Section 2); and I give a broadly sceptical discussion of cosmology's appeal to the cosmological principle as a way of breaking the under-determination (Section 3).I confine most of the discussion to the history of the observable universe from about one second after the Big Bang, as described by the mainstream cosmological model: in effect, what cosmologists in the early 1970s dubbed the ‘standard model’, as elaborated since then. But in the closing Section 4, I broach some questions about times earlier than one second.
Journal: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics - Volume 46, Part A, May 2014, Pages 57–69