Book contents
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Physical cosmology: A brief introduction
- Part II Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
- Part III What constitutes an unorthodoxy? An epistemological framework of cosmology
- Part IV Moderate unorthodoxies: The CMB with the Big Bang
- Part V Radical unorthodoxies: The CMB without the Big Bang
- Part VI Formation of the orthodoxy and the alternatives: Epistemological lessons
- Part VII Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
- 28 CMB and Copernicanism
- 29 The “problem of other observers” and anthropic reasoning
- 30 The nature of boundary conditions in cosmology, the CMB, and the “laws of nature”
- 31 The CMB and the multiverse
- Book part
- Notes
- References
- Index
30 - The nature of boundary conditions in cosmology, the CMB, and the “laws of nature”
from Part VII - Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2024
Book contents
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Physical cosmology: A brief introduction
- Part II Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
- Part III What constitutes an unorthodoxy? An epistemological framework of cosmology
- Part IV Moderate unorthodoxies: The CMB with the Big Bang
- Part V Radical unorthodoxies: The CMB without the Big Bang
- Part VI Formation of the orthodoxy and the alternatives: Epistemological lessons
- Part VII Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
- 28 CMB and Copernicanism
- 29 The “problem of other observers” and anthropic reasoning
- 30 The nature of boundary conditions in cosmology, the CMB, and the “laws of nature”
- 31 The CMB and the multiverse
- Book part
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
The chapter reviews the notion of the initial conditions of the evolving universe and its relationship with the physical laws. It argues a key rift across various explanations of the CMB was based on different understandings of this relationship. Physicists were divided into two camps: those opting for initial conditions as extraneous to the laws, and those predicating initial conditions as following from or inherent to the laws.
Keywords
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- Information
- The Cosmic Microwave BackgroundHistorical and Philosophical Lessons, pp. 161 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024