On essentialist and anti-essentialist replies to the This-Universe Objection

Abstract Proponents of the This-Universe Objection to fine-tuning arguments for a multiverse claim that while the Multiverse Hypothesis raises the probability that some universe is fine-tuned for life, it fails to raise the probability that this one is. Because that is so, they further argue, those who take the fine-tuning of this universe as evidence for a multiverse are guilty of a probabilistic fallacy. Some opponents of the This-Universe Objection contend that it turns on contentious assumptions regarding the essential properties of universes and agents. In particular, it is alleged to turn on the assumption that universes fail to have their nomic properties essentially as well as on the assumption that we could not have existed in other universes. I argue by contrast that the This-Universe Objection does not depend on these assumptions.