Sunday, July 1, 2012

Assumptions and limits of contemporary cosmology


Bias is part of cosmological epistemology...

"Of course, science is not simply based on observation and experiment so innocently. If science were naively based on observation and experiment, the science as we know now may not be possible. On the contrary, science in reality is more related with the art of ignoring and selecting observations, and manipulating experiments, in accordance with a preconceived theory."

Abstract...

Physical cosmology tries to understand the Universe at large with its origin and evolution. Observational and experimental situations in cosmology do not allow us to proceed purely based on the empirical means. We examine in which sense our cosmological assumptions in fact have shaped our current cosmological worldview with consequent inevitable limits. Cosmology, as other branches of science and knowledge, is a construct of human imagination reflecting the popular belief system of the era. The question at issue deserves further philosophic discussions. In Whitehead’s words, “philosophy, in one of its functions, is the critic of cosmologies.”


No comments: