The landscape and the multiverse: What's the problem?
As a candidate theory of quantum gravity, the popularity of string theory has waxed and waned over the past four decades. One current source of scepticism is that the theory can be used to derive, depending upon the input geometrical assumptions that one makes, a vast range of different quantum fiel...
| Published in: | Synthese Vol. 199; no. 3/4; pp. 7749 - 7772 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Dec2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=154096789&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 154096789 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2021 vid: 199 iid: 3/4 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 154096789 10.1007/s11229-021-03137-0 ppf: 7749 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 415KB tig: atl: The landscape and the multiverse: What's the problem? aug: au: Read, James Le Bihan, Baptiste affil: Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road, OX2 6GG, Oxford, UK Département de philosophie, Université de Genève, Rue De-Candolle 2, 1205, Genéve, Switzerland su: Quantum field theory String theory Quantum gravity Quantum theory Landscapes sug: subj: Quantum field theory String theory Quantum gravity Quantum theory Landscapes ab: As a candidate theory of quantum gravity, the popularity of string theory has waxed and waned over the past four decades. One current source of scepticism is that the theory can be used to derive, depending upon the input geometrical assumptions that one makes, a vast range of different quantum field theories, giving rise to the so-called landscape problem. One apparent way to address the landscape problem is to posit the existence of a multiverse; this, however, has in turn drawn heightened attention to questions regarding the empirical testability and predictivity of string theory. We argue first that the landscape problem relies on dubious assumptions and does not motivate a multiverse hypothesis. Nevertheless, we then show that the multiverse hypothesis is scientifically legitimate and could be coupled to string theory for other empirical reasons. Looking at various cosmological approaches, we offer an empirical criterion to assess the scientific status of multiverse hypotheses. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2021. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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