Empirical Factor in E.A. Milne's Cosmology Cover Image

Czynnik empiryczny w kosmologii Edwarda Artura Milne'a
Empirical Factor in E.A. Milne's Cosmology

Author(s): Dariusz Dąbek
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Keywords: E.A. Milne; kinematical relativity; deductivist cosmology

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents the role of the empirical factor in E.A. Milne’s hypothetico-deductivist cosmology. Two contexts of the constructing of his theory are analysed: the context of discovery and the context of justification. It is shown that in the first one empirical data (recession of the galaxies and Hubble’s law) inspired him to investigate the cosmological problem of the phenomenon of the expanding Universe and influenced him to put forward the hypotheses: uniform velocities of fundamental particles, Cosmological Principle, and Lorentz transformation. Milne emphasised that in the procedure of justification the completed theoretical cosmological models should be tested. The empirical factor plays the most significant role in this procedure because the empirical data are the ultimate basis for confirmation or falsification of the cosmological models.

  • Issue Year: 54/2006
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 31-47
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish