The Fundamental Assumptions of Physics and Hume’s Problem

17th April 2023

Physics has made incredible progress over the past few centuries, from uncovering the laws of motion to exploring the nature of space and time. However, despite this progress, there is a lurking problem that threatens to undermine the very foundations of the field. This problem is Hume’s problem, also known as the problem of induction, which challenges the fundamental assumptions of physics.

At its core, Hume’s problem is the recognition that all scientific knowledge is ultimately based on inductive reasoning. In other words, scientific laws are derived from observed patterns in the natural world, but these patterns are always subject to change. This means that no scientific theory can ever be proven absolutely, and our knowledge is always contingent on new observations and experiments.

This poses a significant challenge for physics, which relies on certain fundamental assumptions that cannot be proven absolutely. For example, the laws of physics assume that the universe is fundamentally regular and predictable, that cause and effect are linked in a reliable way, and that the laws of physics are the same everywhere in the universe.

But how do we know that these assumptions are true? They cannot be proven absolutely, and all of our observations and…