Abstract:

Within the framework of general relativity, I hope to illustrate a rather precise sense in which every cosmological model of our universe is empirically underdetermined. It seems that no amount of observational data we could ever (even in principle) accumulate, can force one and only one cosmological model upon us. Additionally, I aim show that even if one assumes (as do the cosmologists) a principle of uniformity – that the physical laws we determine locally are applicable throughout the universe – these general epistemological difficulties remain.