Philosophy and Physics

Sean Carroll scored some kind of a gig at a conference on the philosophy of cosmology in the Canary Islands, and writes about it here. Cosmology and cosmogony are among the oldest questions addressed by philosophy but that doesn't mean that philosophy has anything useful to say to the recently created science of cosmology. Sean comes up with ten questions for this new discipline, but I'm not too impressed. I doubt that the guy whose desk Sean got would be either.

Some of the questions probably have answers that physics may be able to answer, e.g.,

1. In what sense, if any, is the universe fine-tuned? ...

2. How is the arrow of time related to the special state of the early universe?

Others strike me as meaningless or content free - and perhaps thereby suitable subjects for academic philosophy.

The Lumonator takes a swing at question 2., thereby revealing yet again his peculiar incomprehension of statistical mechanics.

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