mediocrity principle
E654378
The mediocrity principle is the philosophical and scientific idea that there is nothing inherently special or exceptional about our place, time, or status in the universe, so we should assume we are typical rather than unique when forming theories.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| mediocrity principle canonical | 1 |
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
epistemological principle
ⓘ
philosophical principle ⓘ scientific principle ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Copernican principle (in some contexts)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
principle of mediocrity ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
anthropic reasoning ⓘ astrobiology ⓘ cosmology ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ |
| assumes |
our observational situation is not privileged
ⓘ
we are a random or typical sample from a relevant reference class ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
claims of cosmic specialness
ⓘ
strong anthropocentric views ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
ambiguity in defining the relevant reference class
ⓘ
lack of precise mathematical formulation in some contexts ⓘ potential misuse as a dogmatic assumption of typicality ⓘ |
| distinguishedFrom |
strong anthropic principle
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
teleological explanations of the universe ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
non-privileged observational standpoint
ⓘ
typicality over uniqueness ⓘ |
| hasCoreIdea |
there is nothing inherently special or exceptional about our place, time, or status in the universe
ⓘ
we should assume we are typical rather than unique when forming theories ⓘ |
| hasImplication |
our epoch in cosmic history is not special
ⓘ
our location in space is not central or privileged ⓘ our species is not cosmically unique by default ⓘ theories should not rely on fine-tuned special conditions without evidence ⓘ |
| hasMethodologicalRole |
guide for assigning prior probabilities
ⓘ
heuristic for model selection ⓘ |
| hasPhilosophicalDomain |
epistemology of cosmology
ⓘ
philosophy of probability ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Copernican revolution
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
cosmological principle NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Copernican principle
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
anthropic principle ⓘ principle of indifference ⓘ typicality assumption ⓘ |
| usedFor |
arguing against human or terrestrial uniqueness
ⓘ
assessing the likelihood of extraterrestrial life ⓘ forming prior assumptions in cosmological models ⓘ guiding probabilistic reasoning about our place in the universe ⓘ |
| usedInArgument |
Doomsday argument (in some formulations)
ⓘ
reasoning about the number of extraterrestrial civilizations ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.