Stein has characterized one of the central problems in accounting for our knowledge in physics as that of getting the laboratory, or observatory, inside the theory — that is, of understanding how the mathematical structures of fundamental physical theories have empirical content. He has argued that physicists respond to this problem by giving schematic representations of observers and experiments. In addition, Stein emphasizes the importance of regarding knowledge as an enterprise, with current theories providing guidance for future inquiry. I will explore some ramifications of this way of thinking about the structure of scientific theories for contemporary cosmology. One goal of observational cosmology is to measure the six basic parameters appearing in the standard model of cosmology. These parameters are well-defined if the universe is suitably approximated at some scale by a perturbed FLRW model. The enormous extrapolations involved in the standard model are often justified by the consistent determination of these parameters via a variety of methods. Here I will consider two recent debates regarding this approach to cosmology, inspired by Stein's work. The first debate regards the impact of different ways of characterizing the propagation of light through a cosmological spacetime on the determination of cosmological parameters (such as $H_0$). The second regards how the highly symmetric FLRW models relate to describing the real universe, at small scales where it is very lumpy.

斯坦因把我们在物理学上的知识解释为一个中心问题，就是把实验室或天文台带入理论之中，即理解基本物理理论的数学结构如何具有经验内容。他认为物理学家通过给出观察者和实验的示意图来回应这个问题。此外，斯坦因强调将知识视为企业的重要性，目前的理论为将来的探究提供了指导。我将探讨这种思维方式对当代宇宙学科学理论结构的影响。观测宇宙学的一个目标是测量出现在宇宙学标准模型中的六个基本参数。如果通过FLRW扰动模型在某种程度上适当地近似了宇宙，则这些参数是明确定义的。通常通过各种方法对这些参数的一致确定来证明标准模型中涉及的大量外推是合理的。在这里，我将根据施泰因的著作，探讨关于这种宇宙学方法的最近两次辩论。第一场辩论涉及表征光通过宇宙时空传播的不同方式对确定宇宙学参数（例如 受斯坦因的作品启发。第一场辩论涉及表征光通过宇宙时空传播的不同方式对确定宇宙学参数（例如 受斯坦因的作品启发。第一场辩论涉及表征光通过宇宙时空传播的不同方式对确定宇宙学参数（例如$H_0$）。第二个方面是关于高度对称的FLRW模型如何与描述非常块状的小范围的真实宇宙相关联。