Maura Burke
Maura Burke is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University. In her project "The Multiverse and the Agent Dependent View" she develops arguments related to the role of contingently developed cognitive features in the construction of explanations in theoretical physics. Agent-based perspectives invite one to consider the ways in which our exploratory and explanatory practices are constrained and shaped by the way we, as active participants in our universe, go about consciously and unconsciously organizing sensory information. Using case studies in cosmology, with a particular emphasis on the development and nature of multiverse theories, she investigates the rationality, epistemic status, and ontological exoticism of candidate theories within theoretical physics. These investigations primarily consider arguments related to probability theory, the nature of causation, and the role of laws in guiding intuitions and imaginations.