A Philosophical Approach to MOND: Assessing the Milgromian Research Program in Cosmology

Description

Dark matter is a fundamental component of the standard cosmological model, but in spite of four decades of increasingly sensitive searches, no-one has yet detected a single dark-matter particle in the laboratory. An alternative cosmological paradigm exists: MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics). Observations explained in the standard model by postulating dark matter are described in MOND by proposing a modification of Newton's laws of motion. Both MOND and the standard model have had successes and failures – but only MOND has repeatedly predicted observational facts in advance of their discovery. In this volume, David Merritt outlines why such predictions are considered by many philosophers of science to be the 'gold standard' when it comes to judging a theory's validity. In a world where the standard model receives most attention, the author applies criteria from the philosophy of science to assess, in a systematic way, the viability of this alternative cosmological paradigm. Cover Front matter Dedication Contents Preface 1 - The Epistemology of Science 2 - The Methodology of Scientific Research Programs 3 - The Milgromian Research Program 4 - Theory Variant T0: The Foundational Postulates 5 - Theory Variant T1: A Non-relativistic Lagrangian 6 - Theory Variant T2: A Relativistic Theory 7 - Theory Variant T3: A Modified Hard Core 8 - Convergence 9 - Summary / Final Thoughts References Index