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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 5: Philosophy of Cosmology V

AGPhil 5.2: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 20. März 2019, 11:45–12:15, HS 10

Exploring the Epistemological and Metaphysical Commitments of DM and MG — •Zhen Liang — DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

Due to the discrepancy between astronomical observations and current theories of gravity, two modifications of general relativity and Newtonian gravity have been proposed: (1) Dark Matter (DM) is posited to compensate for the missing mass that is indicated by the Einstein field equations; (2) a class of theories under the common name Modified Gravity (MG) is alternatively proposed to avoid the invocation of dark matter (which, of course, has yet to be observed). In this paper, I investigate both theories from a philosophical perspective. Pragmatically speaking, both DM and MG seem to *work*: both theories are capable of producing predictions in conformity with cosmological observations. Nevertheless, if we investigate the structure of both theories, a series of hidden metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological commitments undergirding DM and MG are brought to the fore*commitments that expose important philosophical and scientific implications that may impact the future of both theory-building and experimentation.