A friends view of Hawking's latest announcement

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Universum - C. Flammarion, Holzschnitt, Paris ...Image via WikipediaI think that it is impossible for something to create itself. (I also think that it is impossible for something to explain itself.) So I disagree with the claim -- attributed to Hawking -- that the universe can create itself from nothing. 


This is not to say that I disagree with Hawking's model of the universe (though, given the track record of global cosmology, I'd say the odds are that it is false); what I disagree with is the suggestion that that model involves something that is properly called 'self-creation'. 


(In my opinion, Hawking's model either involves absence of cause, or else it involves necessary cause. Most plausibly, absence of cause.)

 There are many good things that have been written about cosmological arguments. As on almost any topic in philosophy, a good place to start is with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/ . Most discussions of cosmological arguments make some comments about self-causation, absence of causation, and so forth.

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