I discuss how modern cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions. I emphasise cosmology's concern with what data could in principle be collected by a single observer (Section 2); and I give a broadly sceptical discussion of cosmology's appeal to the cosmological principle as a way of breaking the under-determination (Section 3).I confine most of the discussion to the history of the observable universe from about one second after the Big Bang, as described by the mainstream cosmological model: in effect, what cosmologists in the early 1970s dubbed the 'standard model', as elaborated since then. But in the closing Section 4, I broach some questions about times earlier than one second. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
CITATION STYLE
Butterfield, J. (2014). On under-determination in cosmology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 46(1), 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2013.06.003
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