I just finished to follow Coursera’s course Philosophy and the Sciences by Prof. M. Massimi and collaborators (from the University of Edinburgh). They already presented an Introduction to Philosophy which was very interesting. This course was split in two parts, one on cosmology and another on cognition. While the latter was rich and contained many interesting thoughts – on embodied cognition, evolutionary psychology and the nature of the mind –, the second was quite disappointing, mainly because it was not accurate and was proponent of the theory of the multiverse as the « best » solution to the value of the cosmological constant (and to other problems). The argument does as the following: all possible universes with all possible values of parameters exist, and we happen to be in the one that allows our existence – end of the story. I will just quote the conclusion of [1] which expresses perfectly my feeling: “Personally I feel the urge to wash my hands after having been in touch with these kinds of arguments. I prefer my principles trivially true.” Continuer la lecture →