Comparative Study of Physics Parallel Worlds and Possible Worlds of David Lewis

Parvizi, Maryam; Ashouri Kisomi, Mohammad Ali

doi:10.22054/wph.2021.57102.1924

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ ph.d candidate of comparative philosophy, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran.

² Philosophy of Art,, Allameh Tabataba;i University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/wph.2021.57102.1924

Abstract

At first glance, it seems that we can find similarities between the possible worlds proposed by Lewis and the theory of parallel worlds in physics. Both of these theories point to the possibility of the existence of worlds other than the one we live in. After Everett's theory, physicists’ attention was drawn to the notions of the multiverse and parallel universes. Parallel worlds are one of the theories that scientists and researchers in the field of physics are interested in. David Lewis, relying on physicalism and modal realism, is one of the supporters of the theory of possible worlds. In this paper, the foundations of the two theories are explained using the analytical-descriptive method, and then, using the comparative method, Lewis's possible worlds theory and parallel worlds are scrutinized. Both theories accept the existence of other worlds. Lewis's theory has six main features: 1- the existence and reality of possible worlds; 2- the absence of a causal relationship between possible worlds; 3- the similarity of possible worlds to our world and the difference in the content of possible worlds; 4- the impossibility of reducing possible worlds; 5- indexical reality; and 6- the space-time unity of branches in a world and incoherency in time-space relations among worlds. The results of this research show that if parallel universes are confirmed as a scientific fact, then the second, third, and sixth features of Lewis's theory may conflict with physical reality. If there is a contradiction due to the fundamental nature of these features, Lewis's theory of possible worlds will suffer a lot.

Keywords

References

Ade, P. A., Aikin, R. W., Barkats, D., Benton, S. J., Bischoff, C. A., Bock, J. J., ... & Bicep2 Collaboration. (2014). “Detection of B-mode polarization at degree angular scales by BICEP2”. Physical Review Letters, 112(24), 241101.

Aghanim, N., Akrami, Y., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, C., Ballardini, M., ... & Roudier, G. (2020). “Planck 2018 results-VI. Cosmological parameters”. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 641, A6.

Albert, David. Loewer, Barry. (1996). “Tails of Schrödinger’s cat”. In Perspectives on quantum reality (pp. 81-92). Springer, Dordrecht.

Armstrong, David. Bigelow, John. Bennett, Jonathan. (2001). Reality and Humean supervenience: essays on the philosophy of David Lewis. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Bradly, Reymond. (1988). Possible Worlds, Indianapolis: Hackett publishing.

Chihara, Charles. (1991). Constructibility and mathematical existence. Oxford: oxford university press.

Chihara, Charles. (1998). The worlds of possibility: Modal realism and the semantics of modal logic. New York: Oxford University Press.

Divers, John. (2002). Possible Worlds, First published by Routledge London and New York.

Duff, Michael. (2013). “String and M-theory: Answering the critics”. Foundations of Physics, 43(1), 182-200.

Einstein, Albert. (2005). Physics and Reality. Translated by Mohammad Reza Khajepour, Tehran: Kharazmi. [In Persian]

Everett, Allen. (2004). “Time travel paradoxes, path integrals, and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics”. Physical Review D, 69(12), 124023.

Hawking, Stephen. (1988). “Wormholes in spacetime”. Physical Review D, 37(4), 904-910.

Hawking, Stephen. Israel, Werner. (Eds.). (1989). Three hundred years of gravitation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hawking, Stephen. Hertog, Thomas. (2018). “A smooth exit from eternal inflation?”. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2018(4), 1-14.

Hawking, Stephen. (2010). A Brief History of Time. Translated by Mohammad Reza Mahjob. Tehran: Publishing Joint Stock Company. [In Persian]

Jubien, Michael. (1988). Problems with possible worlds. In Philosophical analysis (pp. 299-322). Springer, Dordrecht.

Kaku, Michio. (1996). “What happened before the Big Bang?”. Astronomy-Milwaukee then Waukesha, 24, 34-41.

Kaku, Michio. (2005). Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. New York: Doubleday Books.

Kaku, Michio. (2008). Physics of the Impossible. London and New York: Doubleday

Kanger, Stig. (1957). Provability in Logic. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell.

Kohli, Ikjyot Singh. Haslam, Michael. (2015). “Mathematical issues in eternal inflation”. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 32(7), 075001.

Kripke, Saul. (1959). “A completeness theorem in modal logic1”. The journal of symbolic logic, 24(1), 1-14.

Kripke, Saul. (1963). “Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic”, Acta Philosophica Fennica,16, 83–94.

Krane, Kenneth S. (2008). Modern Physics. Translated by Manizhe Rahbar & Bahram Moalemi. Tehran: University publication. [In Persian]

Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm. (1988). Theodicy. open court publishing.

Lewis, David. (1970). “Anselm and actuality”. Noûs, 175-188.

Lewis, David. (1973). Counterfactuals. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Lewis, David. (1979). Possible worlds. The possible and the actual. Edited dy Michael J. Loux. Ithaca then London: Cornell University Press.

Lewis, David. (1986). On the Plurality of Worlds, Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.

Lewis, David. (1994). “Reduction of mind.” in S. Guttenplan (ed), A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 412–31. Reprinted in D. Lewis, Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 291–324; references to the reprint.

Lewis, David. (2004). “How many lives has Schrödinger's cat?”. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 82(1), 3-22.

Linde, Andrei. (1983). “Chaotic inflation”. Physics Letters B, 129(3-4), 177-181.

Majka, M. Hasan, M.K. Majka, T.M. (2015). “Simple solution of time travel problems”. Journal of Education and Technical Sciences, 2(1),34-37.

Movahed, Zia. (2002). Modal logic. Tehran: Hermes. [In Persian]

Morris, Michael. Thorne, Kip. (1988). “Wormholes in spacetime and their use for interstellar travel: A tool for teaching general relativity”. American Journal of Physics, 56(5), 395-412.

Nolan, Daniel. (2005). David lewis. Chesham: Acumen Publishing.

Novikov, Igor. (2018). “A new concept of wormholes and the Multiverse”. Physics-Uspekhi, 61(3), 280.

Rees, Martin. (1997). Before the beginning. Our universe and others. Boston: Addison-Wesley.

Stalnaker, Robert. (1976). "Possible Worlds", Nous, Vol. 10.

Stoljar, Daniel. (2021, June). Physicalism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/

Saeedimehr, Mohammad. (2004). “Possible Worlds from the Viewpoints of Kripke, Plantinga and David Lewis”. Existence and Knowledge, 41, 81-108. [In Persian]

Toossi Saeidi, Massoud. Hosseini, Seyed Hassan, (2020). “Explaining the Incompatibility of Emergentism with Physicalism by an Emphasis on the Ontological Perspective; And Propose a New Emergentist Position”. Philosophical Meditations, 10(24), 11-41. [In Persian]

Unger, Peter. (1984). “Minimizing arbitrariness: toward a metaphysics of infinitely many isolated concrete worlds”. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 9(1), 29-51.

Zahedi, Mohammad Sadeq. (2005). “Do Possible Worlds Have Reality?”. Philosophy of Religion Research, 3(5), 9-39. [In Persian]

Wisdom And Philosophy

Comparative Study of Physics Parallel Worlds and Possible Worlds of David Lewis

References

References

Volume 17, Issue 67
September 2021
Pages 39-62

Comparative Study of Physics Parallel Worlds and Possible Worlds of David Lewis

References

References

Volume 17, Issue 67September 2021Pages 39-62

Volume 17, Issue 67
September 2021
Pages 39-62