Metaphysical premises of quantum cosmological models

Abstract Open Systems: Physics, Metaphysics, and Methodology argues that many of the most illuminating questions in contemporary science are best approached by treating systems as inherently embedded in, and interacting with, their environments. While closed-system modelling has long dominated physics, recent advances—from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and open-system quantum dynamics to complex systems science and quantum causal modelling—show that environmental coupling is often not a dispensable complication but a defining feature. Bringing together leading scholars across physics and philosophy, this volume develops the “open systems view” and probes its limits. Part I sets out the view within quantum theory and clarifies its relations to alternative frameworks. Part II traces open/closed concepts across the history and practice of physics, from Newtonian celestial mechanics to blackbody radiation, gravity with boundaries, and biological emergence. Part III turns to the largest scales, examining cosmology, many worlds, and realism about the universal quantum state. Throughout, contributors connect formal tools—density matrices, Lindblad dynamics, interventionist causation—with methodological and metaphysical stakes, including autonomy, reduction, and fundamentality. The result is a unified guide to modelling, explanation, and ontology when closure is an idealisation rather than a premise.

Diana Taschetto

This work explores foundational issues related to many-worlds theories in Cosmology. It is argued that the metaphysical picture drawn by these theories arise from metaphysical assumptions made during their formulation—most of which are problematic. I elucidate the nature of these assumptions and examine their legitimacy. I conclude the metaphysical presuppositions responsible for the apparent reliability of many-worlds theories in Cosmology are unmotivated and unwarranted by evidence. On this basis, the questions many-worlds models in Cosmology attempt to solve turn out to be a non-starter because their presupposed metaphysical grounding is ill-founded.

M. P. Ryan

Babak Ghaffarzadagan

This paper introduces Reconstructive Metaphysics as a conceptual and interpretive framework addressing foundational questions in quantum mechanics and cosmological multiverse theories. Rather than proposing a new physical theory, it offers a meta-interpretive approach that reframes quantum indeterminacy, cosmological plurality, time, and consciousness as expressions of a single, dynamically reconstructing reality. The work is intended for researchers in physics, philosophy of science, cosmology, and interdisciplinary studies.

Chris J. Clarke