Book contents
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Physical cosmology: A brief introduction
- Part II Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
- 4 Discovery of the CMB
- 5 CMB phenomenology
- 6 Standard “textbook” history and its shortcomings
- 7 Emergence of precision cosmology
- Part III What constitutes an unorthodoxy? An epistemological framework of cosmology
- Part IV Moderate unorthodoxies: The CMB with the Big Bang
- Part V Radical unorthodoxies: The CMB without the Big Bang
- Part VI Formation of the orthodoxy and the alternatives: Epistemological lessons
- Part VII Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
- Book part
- Notes
- References
- Index
6 - Standard “textbook” history and its shortcomings
from Part II - Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2024
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Physical cosmology: A brief introduction
- Part II Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
- 4 Discovery of the CMB
- 5 CMB phenomenology
- 6 Standard “textbook” history and its shortcomings
- 7 Emergence of precision cosmology
- Part III What constitutes an unorthodoxy? An epistemological framework of cosmology
- Part IV Moderate unorthodoxies: The CMB with the Big Bang
- Part V Radical unorthodoxies: The CMB without the Big Bang
- Part VI Formation of the orthodoxy and the alternatives: Epistemological lessons
- Part VII Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
- Book part
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
As the chapter points out, standard cosmology textbooks offer a triumphant account of the Hot Big Bang model as the orthodoxy that was almost instantly accepted with the discovery of the CMB by Penzias and Wilson. Yet this historical account does not reveal the whole story of the orthodoxy’s gradual ascent and the all but forgotten, but at the time important, side roads. We argue that historical analysis must shun the triumphant partial account, but resist eliminating the current understanding as irrelevant for understanding the past. If approached in a balanced manner, the story of the CMB evidence often diverges from the values that unequivocally lent support to the orthodoxy, thus opening the space for alternative interpretations.
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- Information
- The Cosmic Microwave BackgroundHistorical and Philosophical Lessons, pp. 28 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024