Ultimate Explanations of the Universe (eBook)

Michael Heller (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2009 | 2010
XII, 216 Seiten
Springer Berlin (Verlag)
978-3-642-02103-9 (ISBN)

Infos

We humans are collectively driven by a powerful - yet not fully explained - instinct to understand. We would like to see everything established, proven, laid bare. The more important an issue, the more we desire to see it clarified, stripped of all secrets, all shades of gray. What could be more important than to understand the Universe and ourselves as a part of it? To find a window onto our origin and our destiny? This book examines how far our modern cosmological theories - with their sometimes audacious models, such as inflation, cyclic histories, quantum creation, parallel universes - can take us towards answering these questions. Can such theories lead us to ultimate truths, leaving nothing unexplained? Last, but not least, Heller addresses the thorny problem of why and whether we should expect to find theories with all-encompassing explicative power.

Prof. Michael Heller

Birth date and place: March 12 1936, Tarnów, Poland.

1966 Ph.D. - Catholic University of Lublin, Thesis in relativistic cosmology.

1969 docent degree (assistant professorship), Catholic University of Lublin.

1985 extraordinary professorship (professor extraordinarius), Pontifical Academy of Theology, Faculty of Philosophy, Cracow.

1990 Ordinary Professorship (professor ordinarius), Pontifical Academy of Theology, Faculty of Philosophy, Cracow.

1996 Doctor honoris causa - Thechnological University A.G.H. in Cracow.

At present: professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, Cracow, Poland and the adjoined member of the Vatican Observatory (which is an astronomical observatory). Ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Rome), elected in 1991.

Membership of: International Astronomical Union, International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation, European Physical Society, International Society for the Study of Time, Polskie Towarzystwo Fizyczne, Polskie Towarzystwo Astronomiczne and other societies

Fields of scientific research: Relativistic physics, in particular relativistic cosmology; geometric methods in relativistic physics, Philosophy and history of science, Science and theology

Research visits: Visiting professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (1977, 1982), Oxford University, United Kingdom (1982), Leicester University, United Kingdom (1982), Ruhr University, Germany, The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C, USA (1986), University of Arizona (Vatican Research Group), Tucson, USA (1986), Licge University, Belgium (1996), Gregorian University, Rome (2004, 2006) and others

Winner of 2008 Templeton Prize

Inhalt

Preface 5
Contents 7
1 Ultimate Explanations 13
1.1 TO UNDERSTAND UNDERSTANDING 13
1.2 THE TOTALITARIANISM OF THE METHOD 15
1.3 MODELS 17
1.4 ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLES AND OTHER UNIVERSES 19
1.5 CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE 22
Part 1: Models 24
2 Problems With The Eternity Of The Universe 25
2.1 The Eternity And Infinity Of The Universe 25
2.2 The Thermal Death Hypothesis 26
2.3 Einstein’S First Model 27
2.4 The Universe And Philosophy 29
2.5 An Expanding Vacuum 30
2.6 The Crisis Of Einstein’S Philosophy 31
3 A Cyclical Universe 33
3.1 The Problem of The Beginning 33
3.2 An Oscillating Universe 34
3.3 The Recurrence Theorem 36
3.4 Tolman’s Universes 37
3.5 Tipler’s Theorem 38
3.6 Singularities 39
4 A Looped Cosmos 42
4.1 Visions of Closed Time 42
4.2 Kurt Gødel’s Universe 43
4.3 Gott and Li’s Suggestion 45
4.4 Causality and Time 47
4.5 Physics and Global Time 49
4.6 The Space-Time Foam 50
5 Continuous Creation Versus a Beginning 52
5.1 From the Static to the Steady State 52
5.2 A New Cosmology is Born 53
5.3 Bondi and Gold’s Universe 54
5.4 Hoyle’s Universe 57
5.5 In the Heat of Debate 57
5.6 The Demise of the Cosmology of the Steady State 59
5.7 Creation and Viscosity 62
6 Something Almost Out of Nothing 65
6.1 The Horizon Problem and the Flatness Problem 65
6.2 The Mechanism of Inflation 67
6.3 The Inflationary Scenario 69
6.4 Some Critical Remarks 70
7 The Quantum Creation of the Universe 72
7.1 From Inflation to Creation 72
7.2 A Universe Out of the Fluctuations of a Vacuum 73
7.3 The Wave Function of the Universe 75
7.4 Path Integrals 77
7.5 Critical Remarks 79
Part 2: Anthropic Principles and Other Universes 81
8 The Anthropic Principles 82
8.1 A Complex of the Margin 82
8.2 The Era of Man 83
8.3 Carter’s Lecture 85
9 Natural Selection in the Population of Universes 88
9.1 The Multiverse 88
9.2 The Natural Selection of the Universes 89
9.3 Situational Logic 90
9.4 Critical Remarks 91
9.5 Is Life Cheaper Than a Low Entropy? 93
9.6 Falsification 93
10 The Anthropic Principles and Theories of Everything 95
10.1 The Search for Unity 95
10.2 Can the Structure of the Universe be Changed? 96
10.3 Rigid Structures 98
10.4 Imagination and Rationalism 99
10.5 Our Anthropocentrism? 100
11 The Metaphysics of the Anthropic Principles 102
11.1 Three Philosophical Attitudes 102
11.2 The ‘‘Participatory Universe’’ 103
11.3 Creating Our Own History 104
11.4 How Many Copies of Himself Does the Reader Have? 105
11.5 A False Alternative 106
12 Tegmark’s Embarrassment 109
12.1 Other Universes in Philosophy and Mathematical Physics 109
12.2 Domains and Universes 111
12.3 Juggling About with Probabilities 112
12.4 An Apology for the Multiverse 115
Part 3: Creation of the Universe 116
13 The Drive To Understand 117
14 The Metaphysics And Theology Of Creation 122
14.1 The Idea Of Creation In The Old Testament 122
14.2 The Greek Contention With The Origin Of The Universe 124
14.3 The Christian Theology Of Creation 126
14.4 Origen 128
14.5 AUGUSTINE 129
15 Creation And The Perpetuity Of The Universe 132
15.1 Crisis 132
15.2 A Problematic Situation 134
15.3 Contra Murmuranteshellip 135
16 Controversies Over The Omnipotence Of God 138
16.1 Two-Way Questions 138
16.2 Dilemmas Of Divine Omnipotence 139
16.3 From Classification To Mathematicality 141
17 Newton's World 143
17.1 Newton's Scholium 143
17.2.A Mathematical Plan of Creation 144
17.3 Physico-theology and the Concept of Creation 146
17.4 Newton's Impact 147
18 Leibniz’s World 149
18.1 NEWTON AND LEIBNIZ 149
18.2 WHEN GOD CALCULATES AND THINKS THINGS THROUGH 150
18.3 SECRETS OF THE DIVINE CALCULATION 151
18.4 TIME AND SPACE 155
18.5 CAUSALITY 157
19 The Initial Singularity And The Creation Of The World 159
19.1 The Question Of Evolution And Its Beginning 159
19.2 Time And Its Beginning 160
19.3 Problems With The Singularity 161
19.4 Methodological Reservations 163
19.5 The Great Sign 165
20 Creation And Evolution 167
20.1 TWO MISAPPROPRIATIONS 167
20.2 THE HYPERSPACE OF LIFE 168
20.3 PROBABILITY AND CHANCE 170
20.4 GOD AND CHANCE 172
21 Leibniz’s Question 175
21.1 L. Kuhn’S Catalogue Of Explanations 175
21.2 Leibniz’S Question 176
21.3 The Domino Effect 177
21.4 The Existence Of The Universe And The Rules Of Language 178
21.5 The Probability Of Nothing 179
21.6 A Brute Fact 180
Epilogue 183
Notes and References 189
Index 206

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.11.2009
• Zusatzinfo: XII, 216 p.
• Verlagsort: Berlin
• Sprache: englisch
• Original-Titel: ostateczne wyjasnienia wszechswiata
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Anthropic Principle • Cosmology and Creation • Creation of universe • Dawkins god delusion • God delusion • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz • Metaphysics • Theology and Science • Truth • Ultimate cause • Wittgenstein conference
• ISBN-10: 3-642-02103-4 / 3642021034
• ISBN-13: 978-3-642-02103-9 / 9783642021039