Universe or Multiverse? On some philosophical consequences of physical concepts of multiverse

Marko Uršič, Ph.D. Professor
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

In this lecture, some main conceptual features of cosmological multiverse(s) are discussed from the philosophical point of view. The starting point is the hierarchy of multiverses proposed by Max Tegmark (2007). In the following, the discussion is focused on the realistic versions of multiverses (especially in David Deutsch 1997 and 2011), which are epistemologically analyzed, also by drawing parallels between the multiverse theories in physics and the mathematical theories of sets – both lead to paradoxes of infinity if they are not considered properly and critically. The concluding point is that Kant’s classical critique of ideas that are not scientific (not “constitutive” of reality) since they “transcend all possible experience” can and must be reconsidered today in regard to cosmological multiverse(s).