Download pdf
Scientific Reasonings Regarding the Multiverse and Its Implications
- 1 No.2 High School of East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The multiverse has been a heated topic under discussion as it belongs to a scientific concept, yet still has strong philosophical implications as direct evidence can hardly be gathered. This research analyzes the likelihood of the multiverse using classical scientific reasoning models, including falsification and the paradox of grue. The paper also discusses the impact of the multiverse on our free will, covering the notions of the time sequence, self, and the logic behind scientific developments. The paper concludes that the multiverse is so far rendered pseudoscience, and the situation may only change when science further develops. Although the multiverse is a theory that strongly challenges the notion of free will, the paper concludes that we should believe we possess free will to prevent the culture war and preserve all human emotions.
Keywords
Multiverse, Falsificationism, Grue Paradox, Free Will, Worldviews
[1]. Cleaver, G. (2019). Multiverse Theories: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives.
[2]. Linde, A. (2017). A brief history of the multiverse, Reports on Progress of Physics, 80, 022001 (10pp)
[3]. Carr, B. (2007). Universe or Multiverse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.(i).
[4]. Lewis, D. K. (1986). On the plurality of worlds (Vol. 322). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
[5]. Popper, K. (2002). The Logic of Scientific Discovery (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
[6]. Tegmark, M. (2003). Parallel universes. Scientific American, 288(5), pp. 40-51.
[7]. Hempel, Carl (1966). Philosophy of Natural Science. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Chapters 2 and 3, and 5.
[8]. Duhem, P. (1954). The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, Trans. Philip P, Wiener. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 144-147, 183-190, 208-218.
[9]. Goodman, N. (1983). Fact, fiction, and forecast. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[10]. Gardner, M. (2003). Are universes thicker than blackberries?: Discourses on Gödel, magic hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and other mathematical and pseudoscientific topics. New York: WW Norton & Company.
[11]. Hempel, Carl (1966). Philosophy of Natural Science. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Chapters 2 and 3, and 5.
[12]. Lakatos, I. (1978). Science and pseudoscience. Philosophical papers, 1, 1-7.
[13]. Popper, K. (2002). The Logic of Scientific Discovery (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
[14]. Lewis, D. (2013). Counterfactuals. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
[15]. Calle, C. I. (2009). The universe: order without design. Prometheus Books.
[16]. Page, D. N. (2010). Does God So Love the Multiverse? Science and religion in dialogue, pp. 380-395.
[17]. Smilansky, S. (2002). Free will, fundamental dualism, and the centrality of illusion. In The Oxford handbook of free will.
Cite this article
Peng,K. (2023). Scientific Reasonings Regarding the Multiverse and Its Implications. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,4,43-48.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 3
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).