Prof. Elise Crull, from the City College of New York.

“Metaphysics & the Multiverse.”

7pm in the North Academic Center, room 1/201.

Abstract: Although the idea of a multiverse has long been a staple in the realm of science fiction, of late this hypothesis has garnered increasing attention in realm of science proper. For instance, cosmologists have cited the multiverse hypothesis as motivation for deciding which sets of models to investigate, and in explaining the value of constants or choice of parameters within a given model. In this talk, I first look at the kinds of multiverses being invoked by cosmologists themselves (e.g., are they causally-independent “bubble” universes sharing a single spacetime? Or fully independent universes existing across multiple spacetimes? Etc.) I then try to get clear about the metaphysics attached — explicitly or otherwise — to these multiverses, and investigate whether this philosophical ground is sufficient for countenancing the sorts of explantations cosmologists seek. In examining these questions, we shall come to see that in as much as contemporary cosmology involves sustained and significant interpretational questions of this sort — questions which actively influence the direction of theoretical and experimental progress — it becomes a fruitful arena for dialogue between philosophers and scientists.