Planetary fine-tuning, cosmological fine-tuning, and the multiverse

Journal article

Many philosophers and scientists take cosmological fine-tuning—roughly the fact that our universe would have been devoid of life if it had had slightly different cosmological parameters—to point to the existence of a designer or multiverse. Planetary fine-tuning—roughly the fact that our planet would have been devoid of life if it had slightly different intrinsic characteristics or relations to other objects in the solar system—points to the existence of many planets. It may seem that since astronomy independently confirms the existence of many planets, planetary fine-tuning is of less philosophical interest than cosmological fine-tuning. This paper shows that any such appearance is illusory by defending four arguments for the conclusion that our planetary fine-tuning evidence supports the existence of a multiverse.

Authors: Saad, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Journal: Synthese
• Volume: 206
• Issue: 1
• Article number: 16
• Publication date: 2025-06-23
• Acceptance date: 2025-05-13
• DOI: 10.1007/s11229-025-05071-x
• EISSN: 1573-0964
• ISSN: 0039-7857
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ensemble explanations; Enumerative induction; Fine-tuning; Explanatory unification; Inverse gambler’s fallacy; The multiverse hypothesis; Arguments for a multiverse; Ideal rationality