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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Advance Access originally published online on July 20, 2005
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2005 56(3):541-557; doi:10.1093/bjps/axi127
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© The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for the Philosophy of Science. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Reckoning the Shape of Everything: Underdetermination and Cosmotopology

P. D. Magnus

Department of Philosophy, HU 257 University at Albany, SUNY Albany, New York 12222 pmagnus{at}fecundity.com

This paper offers a general characterization of underdetermination and gives a prima facie case for the underdetermination of the topology of the universe. A survey of several philosophical approaches to the problem fails to resolve the issue: the case involves the possibility of massive reduplication, but Strawson on massive reduplication provides no help here; it is not obvious that any of the rival theories are to be preferred on grounds of simplicity; and the usual talk of empirically equivalent theories misses the point entirely. (If the choice is underdetermined, then the theories are not empirically equivalent!) Yet the thought experiment is analogous to a live scientific possibility, and actual astronomy faces underdetermination of this kind. This paper concludes by suggesting how the matter can be resolved, either by localizing the underdetermination or by defeating it entirely.

  1. Introduction
  2. A brief preliminary
  3. Around the universe in 80 days
  4. Some attempts at resolving the problem
    4.1 Indexicality
    4.2 Simplicity
    4.3 Empirical equivalence
    4.4 Is this just a philosophers' fantasy?

  5. Move along...
  6. ...nothing to see here
    6.1 Rules of repetition
    6.2 Some possible replies

  7. Conclusion


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