Cosmological fecundity
Inquiry, vol. 41, no. 3, 1998, pp. 277–299
Abstract
This paper characterizes various responses to the question, ‘Why does our universe exist?’ Some responses–that the question is senseless, that the existence of our universe is logically necessary–are implausible. Adjudication between more plausible responses requires us to evaluate the argument from the ‘fine-tuning’ of the universe, a refurbished version of the argument from design that appeals to cosmology rather than biology. The evidence of fine-tuning should lead us to adopt, albeit provisionally, cosmological fecundity, the hypothesis that there exist many universes of varying characters. The existence of our universe is, thereby, rendered less surprising. This is to be preferred both to the theistic hypothesis and to the view that the existence of our universe requires no explanation.
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We know that the Null Possibility does not obtain, but the fact that it is a possibility deprives us of our best opportunity for claiming that the Maximal Possibility obtains instead. Because there could have been nothing we have little reason to believe that there is everything. Instead, there is just something.