Can typicality arguments dissolve cosmology’s flatness problem?

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2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Several physicists, among them Hawking, Page, Coule, and Carroll, have argued against the probabilistic intuitions underlying fine-tuning arguments in cosmology and instead propose that the canonical measure on the phase space of Friedman-Robertson-Walker space-times should be used to evaluate fine-tuning. They claim that flat space-times in this set are actually typical on this natural measure and that therefore the flatness problem is illusory. I argue that they misinterpret typicality in this phase space and, moreover, that no conclusion can be drawn at all about the flatness problem by using the canonical measure alone.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1239-1252
Number of pages14
JournalPhilosophy of Science
Volume84
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017 Dec

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • History
  • Philosophy
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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