Under-determination in Cosmology: an Invitation

I discuss how modern cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions. I confine the discussion to the history of the observable universe from about one second after the Big Bang, as described by the mainstream cosmological model: in effect, what cosmologists in the early 1970s dubbed the `standard model', as elaborated since then. Or rather, the discussion is confined to a (very!) few aspects of that history. I emphasise that despite the under-determination, a scientific realist can, and should, endorse this description.