Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-29T21:07:50.892Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Uncaused Beginning of the Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Quentin Smith
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is sufficient evidence at present to justify the belief that the universe began to exist without being caused to do so. This evidence includes the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems that are based on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and the recently introduced Quantum Cosmological Models of the early universe. The singularity theorems lead to an explication of the beginning of the universe that involves the notion of a Big Bang singularity, and the Quantum Cosmological Models represent the beginning largely in terms of the notion of a vacuum fluctuation. Theories that represent the universe as infinitely old or as caused to begin are shown to be at odds with or at least unsupported by these and other current cosmological notions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1988 , pp. 39 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkatz, D., and Pagels, H. (1982), “Origin of the Universe as a Quantum Tunneling Event”, Physical Review D 25: 2065–2073.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrow, J., and Silk, J. (1983), The Left Hand of Creation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brout, R., Englert, F., and Gunzig, E. (1978), “The Creation of the Universe as a Quantum Phenomenon”, Annals of Physics (N.Y.) 115: 78–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, W. L. (1979), The Kalam Cosmological Argument. New York: Harper and Row.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, P. (1976), “Discussion Review: Swinburne's Space and Time”, Space and Time 43: 618–637.Google Scholar
Gott, J. R. (1982), “Creation of Open Universes from de Sitter Space”, Nature 295: 304–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grishchak, L. P., and Zeldovich, Y. B. (1982), “Complete Cosmological Theories”, in Duff, M. J. and Isham, C. J. (eds.), Quantum Structure of Space and Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 409–422.Google Scholar
Hawking, S. W. (1966), “Singularities in the Universe”, Physical Review Letters 17: 444–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W. (1976), “Breakdown of Predictability in Gravitational Collapse”, Physical Review D 14: 2460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W., and Ellis, G. F. R. (1973), The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W., and Penrose, R. (1965), “Singularities in Homogenous World Models”, Physical Letters 17: 246–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W., and Penrose, R. (1970), “The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology”, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 314: 529–548.Google Scholar
Hubble, E. (1929), “A Relation Between Distance and Radial Velocity Among Extra-galactic Nebulae”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 15: 168–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Landsberg, P. T., and Park, D. (1975), “Entropy in an Oscillating Universe”, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 346: 485–495.Google Scholar
Lifschitz, E. M., and Khalatnikov, I. M. (1963), “Investigations in Relativist Cosmology”, Advances in Physics 12: 185–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Misner, C. W., Thorne, K. S., and Wheeler, J. A. (1973), Gravitation. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co.Google Scholar
Newton-Smith, W. H. (1980), The Structure of Time. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Penrose, R. (1965), “Gravitational Collapse and Space-Time Singularities”, Physical Review Letters 14: 57–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, R. (1974), “Singularities in Cosmology”, in Longair, M. S. (ed.), Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data, Boston: D. Reidel, pp. 263–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penzias, A., and Wilson, R. (1965), “A Measure of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s”, Astrophysical Journal 142: 419–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, B. G. (1971), “A New Definition of Singular Points in General Relativity”, General Relativity and Gravity 1: 269–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silk, Joseph (1980), The Big Bang. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co.Google Scholar
Smith, Q. (1985a), “Kant and the Beginning of the World”, The New Scholasticism 59: 339–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Q. (1985b), “The Anthropic Principle and Many-Worlds Cosmologies”, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy 63: 336–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Q. (1985c), “On the Beginning of Time”, Noûs 19: 579–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Q. (1986a), The Felt Meanings of the World: A Metaphysics of Feeling. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Q. (1986b), “World Ensemble Explanations”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 67: 73–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Q. (1987), “Infinity and the Past”, Philosophy of Science 54: 63–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stromberg, G. (1925), “Analysis of Radial Velocities of Globular Clusters and Non-Galactic Nebulae”, Astrophysical Journal 61: 353–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swinburne, R. (1981), Space and Time, 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Tolman, R. C. (1934), Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tryon, E. P. (1973), “Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation?”, Nature 246: 396–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vilenkin, A. (1982), “Creation of Universes from Nothing”, Physical Letters 117B: 25–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, J. (1973), “From Relativity to Mutability”, in Mehra, J. (ed.), The Physicist's Conception of Nature. Boston: D. Reidel, pp. 202–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitrow, J. G. (1980), The Natural Philosophy of Time, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar