The n-universes are a conceptual tool introduced by philosopher Paul Franceschi. They consist of simplified models of universes which are reduced to their essential components, in order to facilitate the associated reasoning. In the study of

thought experiment A thought experiment is a hypothetical situation in which a hypothesis, theory, or principle is laid out for the purpose of thinking through its consequences. History The ancient Greek ''deiknymi'' (), or thought experiment, "was the most anc ...

s related to paradoxes and philosophical problems, the situations are generally complex and likely to give birth to multiple variations. Making use of

Occam's razor Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, or Ocham's razor ( la, novacula Occami), also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony ( la, lex parsimoniae), is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied beyond neces ...

, 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 Goodman's paradox and were also used for the analysis of the

s and paradoxes related to the

Doomsday argument The Doomsday Argument (DA), or Carter catastrophe, is a probabilistic argument that claims to predict the future population of the human species, based on an estimation of the number of humans born to date. The Doomsday argument was originally ...

. 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 Henry Nelson Goodman (7 August 1906 – 25 November 1998) was an American philosopher, known for his work on counterfactuals, mereology, the problem of induction, irrealism, and aesthetics. Life and career Goodman was born in Somerville, Ma ...

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 space In probability theory, a probability space or a probability triple (\Omega, \mathcal, P) is a mathematical construct that provides a formal model of a random process or "experiment". For example, one can define a probability space which models t ...

s 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

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 {{DEFAULTSORT:N-Universes Thought experiments in philosophy

Example

See also

References