Have you ever pondered if the universe has a boundary? If it did, what does science have to say to back up the theory? Do the metaphysicists agree or disagree with physicists? All these questions and possibly more will be answered in this essay. My goal in this paper is to hopefully convince you that the universe, in fact, does have a boundary and that there is substantial evidence to justify this claim.
I will start off with what the metaphysics has to say about the universe’s “boundaries”. Keep in mind when using the term “the universe”, I am considering not just our sole galaxy, but rather all of the galaxies and space in between, so in other words the collective volume of all galaxies. According to most of the philosophers, the universe is infinite and has no boundary.
Archytas, a Greek philosopher and friend of Plato, is one who argues Aristotle’s model of the universe and believes the universe is infinite. Aristotle’s model of the universe consisted of a closed ball that includes its surface and its interior. Anything beyond the surface of the ball, the edge of space, is absolutely nothing. “Archytas pointed out an obvious problem: couldn’t you stick your hand out beyond space? If that’s possible, then whether or not you do so, there is a place outside where the hand could be – a possible place for the hand. But space is the collection of all possible places of things, and so there must be space outside, and hence no edge at all” (Huggett, p.33). Archytas’ argument suggest that whenever he reaches the edge of the universe (if there is one) and his hand goes beyond the supposed edge, then he just merely ask the same question, infinitely over each time. So Archytas makes a valid ‘what if’ to this conundrum. One way to reject...
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...about the universe’s properties. Finally, we learn that Einstein’s theory of general relativity and field equation contributed to the finding of CMB and gravitation waves that all lead back to the Big Bang. In conclusion, hopefully this essay helped you understand that the universe is indeed finite, but has no edge, it’s just expanding.
Works Cited
Huggett, Nick. "The Shape of Space 1: Topology." Everywhere and Everywhen: Adventures in Physics and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010. 33-34. Print.
Poidevin, Robin Le. "The Edge of Space." Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 99. Print.
Tate, Karl. "Cosmic Microwave Background: Big Bang Relic Explained (Infographic)." Space.com. TechMedia Network, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .
In Alan Lightman’s, “Our Place in the Universe,” he describes his experiences in the Greek Isles explaining how meek it made him feel to be surrounded by the vast ocean with no land in sight except a small strip of brown in the distance. Great thinkers throughout history, have been exploring the visible variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, though the greatest of these are size, from the smallest atom to gargantuan stars. These massive differences in size change the way we view ourselves in the universe. (470) Garth Illingworth, from the University of California, has studied galaxies more than 13 billion light years away from us.
Throughout history there has always been discussions and theories as to how the universe came to be. Where did it come from? How did it happen? Was it through God that the universe was made? These philosophies have been discussed and rejected and new theories have been created. I will discuss three theories from our studies, Kalam’s Cosmological Argument, Aquinas’s Design Argument, and Paley’s Design Argument. In this article, I will discuss the arguments and what these arguments state as their belief. A common belief from these three theories is that the universe is not infinite, meaning that the universe was created and has a beginning date. Each believe that there was a God, deity, or master creator that created the universe for a reason. They also believe that
For as long as they have existed, humans have had ideas about what the universe holds. Through the millennia they have come to know quite a bit about what is out there, yet the universe is so vast, the greatest human minds have not been able to find everything. However, thanks to a relatively new theory called panpsychism, there may just be an answer. David J Chalmers, an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist, has written a research paper titled, “Panpsychism and Panportopsychism,” that may allow some more understanding on what really is out there, through his use of ethos, logos, and diction.
Krauss, Lawrence Maxwell, and Richard Dawkins. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. New York, NY: Free, 2012. 7-8. Print.
Friedman, Thomas (2007). The World Is Flat (3rd ed.). New York: Picador / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Hawking, Stephen. “Our Picture of the Universe.” Fields of Reading. 6th ed. Ed. Nancy R. Comely et al. New York: St. Martin’s, 2001. (565-574)
Smith, Q., & Oaklander, L. N. (1995).Time, change, and freedom an introduction to metaphysics. London: Routledge.
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• A second principle, which concretises the beginning of the universe, is the second law of thermodynamics. As I quote the cosmologist Sir Arthur Eddington, said,