How postmodern is cosmic inflation?

by Prof. Richard Dawid

Tuesday 14 Sept 2021, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/62320153507

In 2014, Ijjas, Loeb and Steinhardt (ILS) claimed that the paradigm of eternal inflation had left the regime of canonical scientific reasoning (using the pejorative term postmodern inflation). The debate on their paper eventually led to a highly antagonistic and much publicized exchange between ILS and 40 main exponents of inflation in Scientific American. In my talk I will argue that the irreconcilable positions in this debate have genuine philosophical roots. I will sketch a Bayesian analysis of the problem raised by ILS and will argue that acknowledging the role of meta-empirical theory assessment is helpful for identifying the core of the disagreement.

The talk is based on joint work with Casey McCoy.