Questions tagged [cosmology]
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Can many worlds interpretation have universes with different laws?
The Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics is classified by Max Tegmark as a level-3 multiverse hypothesis. This means that in the universes that it will predict, there could be different ...
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Are uncomputable numbers/things a problem for Wheeler's "it from bit"?
I have some questions related to Wheeler's ideas of "It from bit" and "Law without law"
In summary, these both theories postulate that there was an initial universe with no laws from which laws of ...
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Can Schmidhuber's hypothesis reproduce all types of universes? And Wheeler's it from bit? Or Weizsäcker's ur-theory?
I found a paper that talked about paraconsistent logic systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraconsistent_logic) and trivialist systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivialism) and the ...
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How can God be temporal if he never began?
I was reading through this article and it says:
What may be the dominant view of philosophers today is that he is temporal but everlasting; that is, God never began to exist and he never will go ...
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Cosmology - What are the problems with the theory of Eternal Return?
I have been thinking of Niestzche's Eternal return theory and how it could be possible that everything we do and our entire history and the universe will be repeated exactly the same again, and again ...
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How is it possible for an infinite number of moments to have elapsed prior to now?
In the context of the cosmological argument: How is it possible for an infinite number of equal length moments to have elapsed prior to now?
For more context . . I have read several discussions, ...
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Questions about Frank Tipler's Omega Point theory?
He defends in that theory that God could become real, but that he would be limited. He wouldn't be strictly the same God as the one in classical religion. He couldn't do/know the physically and ...
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What is the origin of the symbols for the four elements used in alchemy?
Alchemy uses the following symbols for the four elements that appear in a number of classical cosmologies, namely fire, earth, air and water (I have added letters to show which is which):
The symbols ...
user19558
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Luck of certainty
Title may be bit confusing but let me explain.
Our existence depends on very small possibilities as a person and as humanity.
There are billions of planets without any living thing but there is life ...
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Can order come from chaos?
I've been considering the idea that matter, or some material substance, has either always existed, or just began to exist because it's necessary that it exist. In either event, it was chaotic, ...
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Logical proof of the existence of other dimensions
I'm new to the forum, I'm not a philosophy student, I'm an engineer of sorts.
I was struck the other day by a thought after reading several unrelated posts here.
Given that :
1) Infinity exists for ...
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Can Resurrection and Reincarnation be reconciled?
Many philosophies and religions adopt either reincarnation (in cyclic creation) or resurrection (then final judgement then eternal life in paradise or hell).
Is there a philosophy or a religion which ...
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Has religion adapted to modern cosmology and if so how?
I wonder how existing major religions follow modern cosmology. Is God a god of the planet Earth, or of the whole solar system, or of the entire universe? If he is the god of the whole universe, is he ...
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Does cosmological argument prove that anything that exists has a cause of its existence?
Does the cosmological argument "prove that anything that exists has a cause of its existence", or is that just a premise of the argument?
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Why is aidios, aionios, and aion translated eternal in Plato's Timaeus?
Plato's Timaeus....
When the father creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal (aidos: imperceptible) gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy ...
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How the air and earth elements have been seen in several cosmologies?
In the classical philosophy, air is hot and wet, while earth is cold and dry.
In the Indian teachings, both of these are rather cold; air is dry and earth is wet.
These are merely examples. I'd like ...
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Does physical cosmology imply ontological dualism?
This question has to do with scientific claims about the universe and could be asked in a number of ways.
To my own very imperfect understanding, claims about "the universe" cannot be scientific ...
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What are the relationships between the classical elements?
I cannot find in sources of Empedocles the actual relations between all of the 4 elements. He stated that everything is in some relation to each other as being in love (i.e. positive, attracting) or ...
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If X cannot emerge from nothingness, must X's existence be the decision of a Creator? [closed]
Laurence Krauss wrote a book titled "A Universe from Nothing" explaining how the Universe might have began. In this book Krauss does not address why the laws of physics exist, why they have the form ...
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Does refuting the fine-tuning argument for the existence of God necessarily require belief in a Multiverse?
The fine-tuning argument for the existence of God is based on the fact that certain physical constants can only have very specific values for life to exist in the universe. If there was even the ...
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Isn't anti razor as valid as Occam razor in explaining the Universe and things in it? [closed]
I give an example where this question is important:
There are 2 explanations of how the Universe came into existence:
The Universe come out of nothing or something similar to nothing like quantum ...
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The Copernican Principle and the Giant Void [closed]
Daniel Holz writes on a popular science blog Cosmic Variance:"The Copernican principle is a guiding foundation of cosmology. In short, it states that we are not in a privileged place in the Universe. ...
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What is nothing?
In Lawrence Krauss' book A Universe From Nothing he portrays "nothing" as a physical state. He says that nothing is found by removing all of what we know to be things (particles, electrons etc). I've ...
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Book about presocratic cosmology
Is there any book focusing on presocratic cosmological ideas?
Such as Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments, but covering all of the presocratics.
My main motivation is that I would like to give a lecture ...
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Does a beginning imply an ending? (In regards to the universe)
In regards to the universe if it said to have a start (Beginning) does that imply that it will have an end? Are beginning and ends implied when either ones is said to be true of a proposition or can ...
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How could our universe suddenly appear out of nothingness?
How could our universe suddenly appear out of nothingness? I understand that the big bang created all things but how could it when nothingness is purely the absence of everything?
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Flawed argument involving anthropic principle?
In his book Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe theoretical physicist Lee Smolin takes a shot at the anthropic principle. He is not in favor, because the principle ...
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According to Wikipedia, science can be divided into empirical science (such as natpirical s
According to Wikipedia, science can be divided into empirical science (such as natural science and social science) and formal science (such as mathematics, logic, statistics). I was wondering if ...
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What is a miracle, and why should it influence our metaphysical beliefs?
There's a question on this site regarding what a rational person should accept as a miracle, but the question and its answers seem to take the definition and categorization (as well as consequence) of ...
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Can there be Creation Ex Nihilo?
In Christian & Islamic Theology, one could argue that there can't be Creation Ex Nihilo since 'before' Creation there was God.
In Philosophical Naturalism (which is not Physicalism - it subsumes ...
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What makes primitive cosmology primitive?
In Mary Douglas's Purity & Danger, she reports that the anthropologist Vansina
recalled affectionately three very independent thinkers he found amongst the Bushong, who liked to expound their ...
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Can Something Exist in Nothing (Outside the bounds of our Universe)?
I have always been intrigued by cosmology and the idea that there is a possibility that absolutely nothing exists beyond our universe.
Now I know that there are many theories regarding the universe (...
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GUT and TOE as Fallacies of Misplaced Concreteness?
A.N. Whitehead warns in the introduction to Process and Reality, that the “chief error” of Western philosophy is “overstatement.” He states: “the aim at generalization is sound, but the estimate of ...
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Is the cosmological principle empircally compativle with the concept of relativity?
OK...before everyone blasts this with references to the relativistic invariance of the physical laws, time dilation, etc let me add some context. Also, I am an amateur with an interest in physics, so ...
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What is the argument in this Paragraph
What is the argument in this Paragraph (Aquinas's Five Ways):
The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an ...
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Is a theory of physics possible with no constants?
The Standard Model of Physics has a number of constants. Obviously the fewer the better - simply in terms of there being less fundamentally inexplicable constants to explain.
It seems to me, in as ...
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Can the fine-tuning problem be finessed out of existence via the multi-verse?
The standard model has a number of constants whose specific values are under scrutiny. The fine-tuning problem is that these constants must be a very narrow range for the universe to exist in a real ...
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Should Time and Space Serve as Necessary or Contingent modalities of Division in Cosmology?
In the introduction to Process and Reality, Whitehead criticizes the tendency to posit logical or ontological necessity as the primary modes of cosmological explanation. For Whitehead time is a ...
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Is a void where the laws of physics hold actually a void?
I don't have much background in Cosmology, but an argument I've heard is that the universe sprang into existence from the void via a quantum fluctuation. That is both spacetime & its matter/energy ...
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Why do we assume that we know there is a difference between something and nothing?
For example, we ask questions like: Why is there something rather than nothing? it implies that we know the characteristics of what constitutes nothing and something. What if what we perceive as ...
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Does the universe have solid structures on multiple spatial scales?
Is it reasonable to suggest that if we were to "zoom out" further and further in space with our eyes focused on some object at our initial position, that all the solar systems, then galaxies, and so ...
user3694
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Changing Universe vs Infinity: [closed]
If we accept the idea of a dynamic, changing, evolving Universe (Big Bang Theory), must Infinity remain entirely conceptual?
If the Universe is changing and evolving, this necessarily implies borders ...
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Can there be an infinite chain of causes/effects? [duplicate]
One of Aristotle's premises for proving that God exists is that there cannot be an infinite chain of causes and effects, hence there must be one cause which had no previous cause (i.e. God).
Does ...
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How something came from nothing. [closed]
I am not sure whether I am asking this question at the right site of Stack Exchange.
If one thinks of a time when there was nothing in this void (I would not even say “in this universe” because the ...
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Can we ever know the origin of universe? [closed]
For sake of argument, let's assume that everything has to come from something. In this case, our universe must have come from something, lets call it 'thing 1'. 'Thing 1' in turn must have come from '...
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To what extent did the Presocratics borrow from neighbouring Babylonian & Egyptian cultures?
The IEP entry on Anaximander has:
The astronomy of neighboring peoples, such as the Babylonians and the Egyptians, consists mainly of observations...In contrast, there exists only one report of an ...
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Why is there a God rather than nothing? [closed]
Theists ask, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" How would they answer the question, "Why is there a God rather than nothing?" Is this a valid objection to theism?
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How is concept of Nature different from a concept like God?
I have regularly noticed people using words "Nature, Natural" to describe events, objects etc. Sometimes to denote contrast from "Artificial" origin, sometimes by atheists to refute "Intelligent ...
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Are there philosophical principles that made convincing in antiquity that the Earth was a sphere?
According to Wikipedia, there is no account of how the sphericity of the Earth was established. Though it goes on to say 'A plausible explanation is that it was "the experience of travellers that ...
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What role does "counting histories" play in Deutsch's critique of the "simulation argument"?
In his book The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch argues that there is a problematic assumption behind the simulation argument that "virtually all instances of us are in ... simulations and not in ...
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