Multiple Universes and Self-Locating Evidence

Philosophical Review 131 (3):241-294 (2022)
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Abstract

Is the fact that our universe contains fine-tuned life evidence that we live in a multiverse? Ian Hacking and Roger White influentially argue that it is not. We approach this question through a systematic framework for self-locating epistemology. As it turns out, leading approaches to self-locating evidence agree that the fact that our own universe contains fine-tuned life indeed confirms the existence of a multiverse. This convergence is no accident: we present two theorems showing that, in this setting, any updating rule that satisfies a few reasonable conditions will have the same feature. The conclusion that fine-tuned life provides evidence for a multiverse is hard to escape.

Author Profiles

Yoaav Isaacs
Baylor University
John Hawthorne
Australian Catholic University
Jeffrey Sanford Russell
University of Southern California

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