Mahmoud Mokhtari

The modern cosmology is based on the observational evidences, but several philosophical principles and metaphysical prejudices play an undeniable role in it. This paper surveys some important attitudes such as causality, prediction, determinism etc. in the general relativity and cosmology. The general relativity is a deterministic theory (apart from the singularities) and is applied in prediction of the universe large-scale evolution. However, the acceleration of the universe, noticed at the end of last century, leads to a revolutionary view in the prediction in the cosmology. Subsequently, because of the unknown nature of the acceleration driver, there is an unavoidable uncertainty in this prediction. It is asserted in this article that the cosmologists’ unscientific assumptions, veiled in their scientific claims, affect strictly on their outcomes.

This article is aimed to rephrase and critique the arguments presented by Joseph LaPorte about the truth of theoretical identity statements in natural sciences. LaPorte is classified as an essentialist who accepts the real kinds, but he denies the essence of the kinds to be discovered. His arguments are based on the vagueness of the terms of kinds. In his view while science progress we convention (not discover) what is related to the kinds. I evaluate LaPorte's arguments and show they can be applied only for the border terms in scientific theories and so the generalization of the claim is not defensible.