Cosmology Archives | National Humanities Center

Cosmology

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Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy: From Thales to Avicenna

Edited by Ricardo Salles (NHC Fellow, 2018–19) In antiquity living beings are inextricably linked to the cosmos as a whole. Ancient biology and cosmology depend upon one another and therefore a complete understanding of one requires a full account of the other. This volume addresses many philosophical issues that arise from this double relation. Does … Continued

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Cosmos in the Ancient World

Edited by Phillip Sidney Horky (NHC Fellow, 2016–17) How did the ancient Greeks and Romans conceptualise order? This book answers that question by analysing the formative concept of kosmos ('order', 'arrangement', 'ornament') in ancient literature, philosophy, science, art, and religion. This concept encouraged the Greeks and Romans to develop theories to explain core aspects of … Continued

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Parmenides and Presocratic Philosophy

By John Palmer (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) John Palmer develops and defends a modal interpretation of Parmenides, according to which he was the first philosopher to distinguish in a rigorous manner the fundamental modalities of necessary being, necessary non-being or impossibility, and non-necessary or contingent being. This book accordingly reconsiders his place in the historical development … Continued

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The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton’s Thought

By Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs (NHC Fellow, 1978–79) In this major reevaluation of Isaac Newton's intellectual life, Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs shows how his pioneering work in mathematics, physics, and cosmology was intertwined with his study of alchemy. Professor Dobbs argues that to Newton those several intellectual pursuits were all ways of approaching Truth, and … Continued