N-universes
The n-universes are a conceptual tool introduced by philosopher
paradoxes and philosophical problems, the situations are generally complex and likely to give birth to multiple variations. Making use of Occam's razor
, modeling in the n-universes makes it possible to reduce such situations to their essential elements and to limit accordingly the complexity of the relevant study.
The n-universes were introduced in Franceschi (2001), in the context of the study of
paradoxes related to the Doomsday argument
. In the typology of n-universes, it is worth distinguishing:
- according to whether they comprise constant-criteria or/and variable-criteria (space, time, color, shape, temperature, etc.)
- according to whether they comprise one or more objects
- according to whether a given criterion is or not with demultiplication
- according to whether the objects are in relation one-one or many-one with a given criterion.
The n-universes proceed of a double inspiration: on the one hand, as a system of criteria, that of Nelson Goodman and on the other hand, at the ontological level, that of the Canadian philosopher John Leslie. The n-universes also propose to extend the properties of probability spaces classically used in probability theory (Franceschi 2006).
Example
The N-universe represented below shows the following characteristics:
- it comprises 4 objects
- it has one variable-criterion of time (a single temporal position), one variable-criterion of location (with 4 space positions) and one variable-criterion of color (with three taxa: red, blue, green)
- the objects are in a many-one relationship to the color variable: several objects have the same color
- the objects are in many-one relationship to the time constant: several objects exist simultaneously at the single temporal position
- the objects are in one-one relationship with the space criterion: only one object exists at a given space position
- the objects are not with demultiplication with regard to the temporal criterion: the objects exist only at one single temporal position
See also
- Possible worlds
- Many-worlds interpretation
References
- Franceschi, Paul (2001), A Solution to Goodman's paradox English translation of a paper initially appeared in French under the title Une Solution pour le Paradoxe de Goodman], in Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, vol. 40, pages 99–123.
- Franceschi, Paul (2002), Une application des n-univers à l'argument de l'apocalypse et au paradoxe de Goodman, doctoral dissertation, Corti: University of Corsica.
- Franceschi, Paul (2006), Situations probabilistes pour n-univers goodmaniens, Journal of Philosophical Research, vol. 31, pages 123-141.
- Franceschi, Paul (2009), Dialogue d'introduction aux n-univers - Introduction dialogue to n-universes, Edition 2.1, CreateSpace