The Import of Physical Cosmology for Philosophical Cosmology

Physical cosmology places constraints on philosophical cosmologies, understood in Alfred North Whitehead's sense as comprehensive theories of nature and ultimate reality. These constraints are not strict because it is usually possible for a philosophical cosmology to work around an awkward implication from physical cosmology, though the price may be a decrease in plausibility. This paper identifies distinctive patterns in the ways three different classes of philosophical cosmology—supernatural cosmology, process cosmology, and ground-of-being cosmology—negotiate constraints from physical cosmology.