Epistemology of the inflation theory

The present work discusses the core mechanics of inflationary cosmology from the viewpoint of theoretical physics, and shows how the inflation theory has evolved through the decades. Hundreds of models were proposed with increasing complexity and flexibility, and inflation can nowadays be adjusted to accommodate any possible precision data gathered by collaborations successive to WMAP and Planck. The present work proceeds performing an analysis from the viewpoint of philosophy of science on this epistemologically worrying scenario in which empirical evidence seems unable to falsify, nor consequently verify, inflation. Bayesian confirmation theory and metaempirical confirmation theory are discussed and employed, then an original epistemological framework, inspired by the multiverse, is proposed to further investigate whether inflation is science or something beyond.