Fine tuning specifics (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 04, 2014, 16:10 (3886 days ago)

The need for a more philosophic approach to cosmology:-http://phys.org/news/2014-04-science-philosophy-collide-fine-tuned-universe.html-"In a 2004 review in Science of Searle's Mind a Brief Introduction, neuroscientist Christof Koch wrote:
 
"Whether we scientists are inspired, bored, or infuriated by philosophy, all our theorising and experimentation depends on particular philosophical background assumptions. This hidden influence is an acute embarrassment to many researchers, and it is therefore not often acknowledged. Such fundamental notions as reality, space, time and causality ... notions found at the core of the scientific enterprise ... all rely on particular metaphysical assumptions about the world.
 
"This may seem self-evident, and was regarded as important by Einstein, Bohr and the founders of quantum theory a century ago, but it runs against the grain of the views of working scientists in the post-war period.
 
"Indeed, 21st-century mathematicians and scientists seem to have little need of philosophy.
 
"The glory days of Karl Popper, who argued that falsifiability was a hallmark of good science, and Thomas Kuhn, who noted the phenomenon of paradigm shifts, are long gone—in science, if not in the humanities."-And:-"In short, numerous features of our universe seem fantastically fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life. While some physicists still hold out for a "natural" explanation, many others are now coming to grips with the notion that our universe is profoundly unnatural, with no good explanation other than the Anthropic Principle—the universe is in this exceedingly improbable state, because if it weren't, we wouldn't be here to discuss the fact."-- Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-04-science-philosophy-collide-fine-tuned-universe.html#jCp