Title: Totality and Physics

ABSTRACT: I will look at the notion of totality and how it figures in modern physics. The metaphysics and epistemology of totality facts, and the logical problems that the notion engenders, have long been topics of discussion in philosophy. They haven’t, however, penetrated into the philosophy of science even though cosmology as it is practiced today is, to a significant extent, the physics of totalities.  I will look at the shape those problems take in the context of modern cosmology and some of the lessons to be learned.  There will be implications for familiar philosophical topics like determinism, but also unsettled questions that I hope will be exciting for metaphysicians. (The talk will presuppose no knowledge of physics and be devoid of technicality aside from qualitative descriptions of relevant bits of physics.)