We have always tended to look to our basic sciences for insight into more broadly philosophical questions, for example, questions such as “what sort of universe do we inhabit?”

The previous 100 years saw the devel­opment of two new approaches in physics, these being relativity theory and quantum theory. As it turns out, both of these new (and now well established) theories have substantial implications for some of our most basic philosophical questions as to the nature of the universe. The main goal of the current essay is to provide an overview of these two new branches of physics, with an eye toward seeing the implications each has for our most long­standing views on the universe.

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