2021/10/15 by Luke A. Barnes, Barnes, Luke A.
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #physics.hist-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2110.07783
15 pages, 1 figure. Invited contribution to the Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, edited By Eleanor Knox, Alastair Wilson
arxiv created 2021/10/15 · openalex publication_date 2021/10/15 · arxiv updated 2021/10/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
When a physicist says that a theory is fine-tuned, they mean that it must make a suspiciously precise assumption in order to explain a certain observation. This is evidence that the theory is deficient or incomplete. One particular case of fine-tuning is particularly striking. The data in question are not the precise measurements of cosmology or particle physics, but a more general feature of our universe: it supports the existence of life. This chapter reviews this Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Life.