Multiple Universes and Self-Locating Evidence

Philosophical Review 131 (3):241-294 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Is the fact that our universe contains fine-tuned life evidence that we live in a multiverse? Ian Hacking and Roger White influentially argue that it is not. We approach this question through a systematic framework for self-locating epistemology. As it turns out, leading approaches to self-locating evidence agree that the fact that our own universe contains fine-tuned life indeed confirms the existence of a multiverse. This convergence is no accident: we present two theorems showing that, in this setting, any updating rule that satisfies a few reasonable conditions will have the same feature. The conclusion that fine-tuned life provides evidence for a multiverse is hard to escape.

Similar books and articles

Fine-tuning as Old Evidence, Double Counting, and the Multiverse.Simon Friederich - 2017 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 31 (4):363-377.
Reconsidering the Inverse Gambler’s Fallacy Charge Against the Fine-Tuning Argument for the Multiverse.Simon Friederich - 2019 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 50 (1):29-41.
Fine-tuning as evidence for a multiverse: why White is wrong. [REVIEW]Mark Douglas Saward - 2013 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73 (3):243-253.
The fine-tuned universe and the existence of God.Man Ho Chan - 2017 - Dissertation, Hong Kong Baptist University
The fine-tuning argument.Neil A. Manson - 2009 - Philosophy Compass 4 (1):271-286.
Fine Tuning and the Multiverse.Rodney Holder - 2006 - Think 4 (12):49 - 60.
Does God So Love the Multiverse?Don N. Page - 2010 - In Melville Y. Stewart (ed.), Science and Religion in Dialogue. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 380--395.
A New Fine-Tuning Argument for the Multiverse.Simon Friederich - 2019 - Foundations of Physics 49 (9):1011-1021.
Self-Locating Beliefs.Michael Huemer - 2018 - In Paradox Lost: Logical Solutions to ten Puzzles of Philosophy. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 219-243.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-06-25

Downloads
1,955 (#4,531)

6 months
623 (#2,103)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Yoaav Isaacs
Baylor University
John Hawthorne
Australian Catholic University
Jeffrey Sanford Russell
University of Southern California

References found in this work

Knowledge and Its Limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - Philosophy 76 (297):460-464.
Knowledge and its Limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 64 (1):200-201.
Attitudes de dicto and de se.David Lewis - 1979 - Philosophical Review 88 (4):513-543.

View all 46 references / Add more references