Global ETD Search

1	Cosmic Skepticism and the Beginning of Physical Reality Daniel J Linford (12883550) 16 June 2022 (has links) <p>This dissertation is concerned with two of the largest questions that we can ask about the nature of physical reality: first, whether physical reality begin to exist and, second, what criteria would physical reality have to fulfill in order to have had a beginning? Philosophers of religion and theologians have previously addressed whether physical reality began to exist in the context of defending the Kal{\'a}m Cosmological Argument (KCA) for theism, that is, (P1) everything that begins to exist has a cause for its beginning to exist, (P2) physical reality began to exist, and, therefore, (C) physical reality has a cause for its beginning to exist. While the KCA has traditionally been used to argue for God's existence, the KCA does not mention God, has been rejected by historically significant Christian theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, and raises perennial philosophical questions -- about the nature and history of physical reality, the nature of time, the nature of causation, and so on -- that should be of interest to all philosophers and, perhaps, all humans. While I am not a religious person, I am interested in the questions raised by the KCA. In this dissertation, I articulate three necessary conditions that physical reality would need to fulfill in order to have had a beginning and argue that, given the current state of philosophical and scientific inquiry, we cannot determine whether physical reality began to exist.</p> History and philosophy of science Metaphysics Philosophy of religion Theology Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy Thermodynamics and statistical physics cosmology physics philosophy philosophy of science philosophy of religion philosophy of cosmology kalam cosmological argument cosmological argument kalam history and philosophy of science creation of the universe origin of the universe metaphysics infinity General Relativity large scale structure of the universe global space-time structure

Search results

Cosmic Skepticism and the Beginning of Physical Reality