UNPRINCIPLED COSMOLOGY

The role of 'Principles' in cosmology is described with particular ref erence to the Perfect Cosmological Principle and the Cosmological Prin ciple. The true evidence for the Cosmological Principle is outlined to gether with the history of attempts to prove it to be a general proper ty of long-lived universes. The inflationary universe models represent the culmination of this research programme. We also discuss some of t he consequences of cosmological models in which observable aspects of the Universe arise as a result of random symmetry breakings during the early stages of its history. A number of specific examples are given in which the outcomes determine whether or not organized complexity an d observers can subsequently evolve. It is argued that the necessary c onditions for the existence of observers need to be fully known in ord er to correctly evaluate such theories. Finally, it is argued that glo bal 'principles' governing the initial state of the Universe, whose en unciation have recently become rather popular, are unlikely to provide an explanation for the structure of the visible universe because it e xpands from a very small, possibly atypical, part of initial data spac e.