s there a Universe? Bafflingly, scientific cos- mologists, from Einstein to Hawking, have invariably failed to face up to this question. This is all the more curious because some of them have claimed to know that the uni- verse can only be such as prescribed by their theories. Some even claimed that their expertise enables them to create, in theory at least, entire universes literally out of nothing.
For their strange attitudes toward the uni- verse, this greatest object of empirical human inquiry, scientists have not been taken to task by philosophers. No wonder. The universe has become orphaned by modern philosophy.
In this book the author, a renowned historian and philosopher of science, and especially of astronomy and cosmology, probes into this puz- zling state of affairs. He also points out that slighting the question, Is there a Universe?, has serious consequences for science as well as for philosophy, to say nothing of theology. Most importantly, he shows that it is possible to answer the question, Is there a Universe?, in a convincingly demonstrative way.