 Cosmology confronts a distinctive challenge in accounting for the origin of the universe. In most other branches of physics the initial or boundary conditions of a system do not call out for theoretical explanation. They may reflect, for example, the impact of the environment, or an arbitrary choice regarding when to cut off the description of a subsystem of interest. But in cosmology there are heated debates regarding what form a “theory of the initial state” should take, and what it should contribute to our understanding of the universe. This basic question regarding the nature of aims of a theory of origins has significant ramifications for various lines of research in cosmology.