Abstract

Modern cosmology, the physical discipline devoted to understand the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole, has made impressive progress in the last decades, and it has become a very lively field of research. Drawing on the fundamental theories of physics (general relativity, quantum field theory, string theory) and dealing with the very limits of scientific investigation, modern cosmology raises by its very nature philosophical questions. This article starts with highlighting the distinctive features of modern cosmology, and aims at providing an overview of the related epistemological and methodological issues which are mainly discussed in current philosophy of cosmology, an expanding branch of the philosophy of physics.