Philosophy
If the universe is infinite now it has always been infinite. This is the opinion of many astronomers today as can be concluded from the following series of interviews, but the opinions differ much more than I had expected. Many astronomers do not have a clear opinion on this matter. Others have a clear opinion, but very different from the majority. Detailed arguments by two experts on general relativity are also included. Observations show that the universe is flat, i.e. the curvature is zero within the small uncertainty of measurements. This implies an infinite universe, though most probably we will never know that for certain. For comparison with the recent interviews, opinions during the past 2300 years since Aristotle about the universe being finite or infinite have been collected from literature, and it appears that the scientists often had quite definite opinions.
Astrosociology: Interwiews about an infinite universe by Erik Høg
- God's Infinite Properties
A student and playground regular is working on a senior thesis with me about natural language uses of utterances referring to the infinite. He's got an interesting puzzle that I figured I'd throw out there for everyone to play with. There are...
- Everything And Nothing - Everything
You may find this hard to believe, but we've known about the true size of the universe for only about 100 years. When Copernicus proposed his revolutionary heliocentric model, for instance, he still believed in the existence of a perfect celestial...
- Anthony Quinton On Spinoza & Leibniz
Once Descartes set the agenda and got modern philosophy started, the greatest thinkers of Europe divided into roughly two camps: the empiricists, like Locke, Berkeley and Hume, who argued that substantive knowledge about the world comes exclusively from...
- Non-universal Laws Of Physics
I have advocated this for years. We do not know with certainty that the physics we observe and use are truly universal...and may never know. "Laws of physics 'are different' depending on where you are in the universe" Laws we know may be 'like...
- A Physicist's Philosophical Perspective
Israel Perez has provided his insight into the physical world. I cannot totally agree with the paper. Abstract: Without a doubt many problems in physics arise as a consequence of our philosophical conception of the world. In this contribution however...
Philosophy
An infinite universe?
If the universe is infinite now it has always been infinite. This is the opinion of many astronomers today as can be concluded from the following series of interviews, but the opinions differ much more than I had expected. Many astronomers do not have a clear opinion on this matter. Others have a clear opinion, but very different from the majority. Detailed arguments by two experts on general relativity are also included. Observations show that the universe is flat, i.e. the curvature is zero within the small uncertainty of measurements. This implies an infinite universe, though most probably we will never know that for certain. For comparison with the recent interviews, opinions during the past 2300 years since Aristotle about the universe being finite or infinite have been collected from literature, and it appears that the scientists often had quite definite opinions.
Astrosociology: Interwiews about an infinite universe by Erik Høg
- God's Infinite Properties
A student and playground regular is working on a senior thesis with me about natural language uses of utterances referring to the infinite. He's got an interesting puzzle that I figured I'd throw out there for everyone to play with. There are...
- Everything And Nothing - Everything
You may find this hard to believe, but we've known about the true size of the universe for only about 100 years. When Copernicus proposed his revolutionary heliocentric model, for instance, he still believed in the existence of a perfect celestial...
- Anthony Quinton On Spinoza & Leibniz
Once Descartes set the agenda and got modern philosophy started, the greatest thinkers of Europe divided into roughly two camps: the empiricists, like Locke, Berkeley and Hume, who argued that substantive knowledge about the world comes exclusively from...
- Non-universal Laws Of Physics
I have advocated this for years. We do not know with certainty that the physics we observe and use are truly universal...and may never know. "Laws of physics 'are different' depending on where you are in the universe" Laws we know may be 'like...
- A Physicist's Philosophical Perspective
Israel Perez has provided his insight into the physical world. I cannot totally agree with the paper. Abstract: Without a doubt many problems in physics arise as a consequence of our philosophical conception of the world. In this contribution however...