Accepted by

An investigation is made of the possibility that gravity is the low energy effective theory resulting from a phase transition at some high energy. I focus on the instabilities of classical gravity in order to build a model for the universe shortly after such a transition which is assumed to be of first order. The dynamics of the evolution of this initial state are investigated in detail, and the implications for such pro-cesses as baryosynthesis and monopole production are discussed. Also, the initial state is investigated in detail, with con-sideration of the validity and possible refinements of the initial approximations, and connection is made to the outstand-ing horizon, flatness, and cosmological constant problems in cosmology. Finally, I briefly discuss other treatment of gravity which may have implications for phase transitions in the early universe