Journal article
Navigating permanent underdetermination in dark energy and inflationary cosmology
- Abstract:
- We identify troubling cases of so-called “permanent underdetermination” in both dark energy and inflationary cosmology. We bring to bear (a) a taxonomy of possible responses to underdetermination, and (b) an understanding of both dark energy and inflationary cosmology from an effective field theory point of view. We argue that, under certain conditions, there are viable responses that can arguably alleviate at least some of the concerns about underdetermination in the dark energy and inflationary sectors. However, the epistemic threat of permanent underdetermination remains a significant challenge.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 443.8KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.31389/pop.269
Authors
+ St. Cross College, University of Oxford
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/052gg0110
+ British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/00s163867
- Publisher:
- LSE Press
- Journal:
- Philosophy of Physics More from this journal
- Volume:
- 4
- Issue:
- 1
- Article number:
- 3
- Publication date:
- 2026-02-26
- Acceptance date:
- 2026-02-05
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2753-5908
- Language:
-
English
- Pubs id:
-
2362392
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2362392
- Deposit date:
-
2026-01-20
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Wolf and Read
- Copyright date:
- 2026
- Rights statement:
- © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article published under Creative Commons Attribution license.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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