Plenitude principle
Encyclopedia
The plenitude principle or principle of plenitude asserts that everything that can happen will happen.
The historian of ideas
Arthur Lovejoy
was the first to discuss this philosophically
important Principle explicitly, tracing it back to Aristotle
, who said that no possibilities which remain eternally possible will go unrealized, then forward to Kant
, via the following sequence of adherents:
In physics
, experimentalist
s became increasingly positive toward the many-worlds interpretation
of quantum mechanics
, "probably [because] they have recently produced so many “weird” (but perfectly repeatable) experimental results [...] and therefore simply accept that the world is a weirder place than we thought it was and get on with their calculations."
The historian of ideas
Intellectual history
Note: this article concerns the discipline of intellectual history, and not its object, the whole span of human thought since the invention of writing. For clarifications about the latter topic, please consult the writings of the intellectual historians listed here and entries on individual...
Arthur Lovejoy
Arthur Oncken Lovejoy
Arthur Oncken Lovejoy was an influential American philosopher and intellectual historian, who founded the field known as the history of ideas....
was the first to discuss this philosophically
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
important Principle explicitly, tracing it back to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, who said that no possibilities which remain eternally possible will go unrealized, then forward to Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
, via the following sequence of adherents:
- EpicurusEpicurusEpicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works...
reiterated the principle in fr.266 Us.Hermann UsenerHermann Karl Usener was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion.-Life:...
His follower LucretiusLucretiusTitus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying out the beliefs of Epicureanism, De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe".Virtually no details have come down concerning...
(DRN V 526-33 ) famously applied the principle to the sets of multiple explanations by which the Epicureans account for astronomical and meteorological phenomena: every possible explanation is also true, if not in our world, then somewhere else in the infinite universe. - Augustine of HippoAugustine of HippoAugustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
brought the Principle from Neo-Platonic thought into early Christian TheologyTheologyTheology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. - St Anselm's ontological argumentOntological argumentThe ontological argument for the existence of God is an a priori argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument was first proposed by the eleventh-century monk Anselm of Canterbury, who defined God as the greatest possible being we can conceive...
s for God's existence used the Principle's implication that nature will become as complete as it possibly can be, to argue that existence is a 'perfection' in the sense of a completeness or fullness. - Thomas AquinasThomas AquinasThomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
accepted a modified form of the principle, but qualified it by making several distinctions that safeguard the freedom of God. - Giordano BrunoGiordano BrunoGiordano Bruno , born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited...
's insistence on an infinity of worlds was not based on the theories of Copernicus, or on observation, but on the Principle applied to God. His death may then be attributed to his conviction of its truth. - KantKANTKANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
believed in the Principle but not in its empirical verification, even in principle.
In physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, experimentalist
Experimentalist
"Experimentalist" is a blanket term for all sorts of scientists engaged more in experimental activity than in the theoretical side of their sciences....
s became increasingly positive toward the many-worlds interpretation
Many-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
, "probably [because] they have recently produced so many “weird” (but perfectly repeatable) experimental results [...] and therefore simply accept that the world is a weirder place than we thought it was and get on with their calculations."