Cosmological Fine-Tuning Arguments

What (if Anything) Should We Infer from the Fine-Tuning of Our Universe for Life?
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-032-08973-7
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 338 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 491 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Religion

If the physical constants, initial conditions, or laws of nature in our universe had been even slightly different, then the evolution of life would have been impossible. This observation has led many philosophers and scientists to ask the natural next question: why is our universe so "fine-tuned" for life? The debates around this question are wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary, complicated, technical, and (at times) heated. This study is a comprehensive investigation of these debates and the many metaphysical and epistemological questions raised by cosmological fine-tuning. Waller’s study reaches two significant and controversial conclusions. First, he concludes that the criticisms directed at the "multiverse hypothesis" by theists and at the "theistic hypothesis" by naturalists are largely unsuccessful. Neither of these options can plausibly be excluded. Choosing between them seems to turn on primitive (and so hard to justify) metaphysical intuitions. Second, in order to break the philosophical deadlock, Waller moves the debate from the level of universes to the level of possible worlds. Arguing that possible worlds are also "fine-tuned" in an important and interesting sense, Waller concludes that the only plausible explanation for the fine-tuning of the actual world is to posit the existence of some kind of "God-like-thing."

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Waller, Jason

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Wissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: What Can We Make of These Strange Coincidences?

1. Four Preliminary Questions

2. Our Fine-Tuned Universe?

3. Learning from the Critics

4. Mapping the Logical Space

5. Our Fine-Tuned Actual World?

Über Autor(innen)

Jason Waller is an associate professor of philosophy at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. His previous books include the Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Spinoza on Politics (2016) and Persistence through Time in Spinoza (2012).