&gt; If one&#x27;s definition of the Anthropic Principle in this context simply means that an observed universe will be consistent with a universe that can be observed, then I find it to be trivially true and applicable to a single universe scenario.<p>It is &quot;trivially&quot; true in a sense. It&#x27;s a tautology. But it&#x27;s still useful for thinking about things. I think it applies just as well to a single universe or a multiverse, because even with a single universe you can at least hypothesize about other ways the single universe could behave.<p>&gt; However, if you are not selecting from a population, I don&#x27;t find that the Anthropic Principle explains why a value is what it is. In the scenario where there is only a single value, I think the Anthropic Principle simply demonstrates that that particular value must support life.<p>It might not answer the extremely broad and ill-defined question &quot;why&quot; to your satisfaction, but I find it fairly satisfying. If things were another way, then I wouldn&#x27;t be observing the universe because I wouldn&#x27;t exist. So it&#x27;s not strange that the universe <i>is</i> this way, given that I exist.