What kind of science is cosmology?

pp. 144-167

in: Enno Rudolph, Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu (eds), Philosophy, mathematics and modern physics, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

Possibly, a philosopher of science is expected to ask this question — not a theoretical physicist. Nevertheless, an inquiry into the nature of a discipline covering, on the scale of atomic time, a span between 10–⁴⁴ seconds (Planck time) and 10¹⁰⁰ years (the time after which a supermassive black hole of galaxy mass will have been radiated away through the Hawking process) seems called for also from the point of view of physics¹. In cosmology we encounter a field of research well established by all social criteria, a common endeavor of mathematics, theoretical physics, astronomy, astrophysics, nuclear and elementary particle physics claiming to explain more than the cosmogonic myths of the days of old. Has cosmology become a natural science, even a branch of the exact sciences?