Cosmos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other senses of this word, see cosmos (disambiguation).
The Ancient and Medieval cosmos as depicted in Peter Apian's Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1539).
The Ancient and Medieval cosmos as depicted in Peter Apian's Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1539).

In its most general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from a Greek term κόσμος meaning "order, orderly arrangement, ornaments," and is the antithetical concept of chaos. Today the word is generally used as a synonym of the word "Universe" (considered in its orderly aspect). The words cosmetics and cosmetology originate from the same root.

Contents

[edit] Philosophy

The largest extent of the Universe so far, captured by Nasa
The largest extent of the Universe so far, captured by Nasa

Pythagoras is said to have been the first philosopher to apply the term cosmos to the Universe, perhaps from application to the starry firmament.

Russian cosmism is a cosmocentric philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in Russia in the early 20th century.

[edit] Theology

In theology, the term can be used to denote the created Universe, not including the creator. The Septuagint uses both kosmos and oikumene for the inhabited world. In Christian theology, the word was also used synonymously with aion to refer to "worldly life" or "this world" as opposed to the afterlife.

The cosmos as originated by Pythagoras is parallel to the Zoroastrian term aša, the concept of a divine order, or divinely ordered creation.

[edit] Cosmology

Main article: Cosmology
Universum – C. Flammarion, Holzschnitt, Paris 1888, Kolorit: Heikenwaelder Hugo, Wien 1998
Universum – C. Flammarion, Holzschnitt, Paris 1888, Kolorit: Heikenwaelder Hugo, Wien 1998

Cosmology is the study of the cosmos in several of the above meanings, depending on context. All cosmologies have in common an attempt to understand the implicit order within the whole of being. In this way, most religions and philosophical systems have a cosmology.

Image of distribution of the cosmic microwave background radiation 700,000 years after the Big Bang, generally assumed to have occurred about 13,700,000,000 years ago.
Image of distribution of the cosmic microwave background radiation 700,000 years after the Big Bang, generally assumed to have occurred about 13,700,000,000 years ago.

In physical cosmology, the term cosmos is often used in a technical way, referring to a particular space-time continuum within the (postulated) multiverse. Our particular cosmos is generally capitalized as the Cosmos.

[edit] New Age philosophy

The philosopher Ken Wilber uses the term kosmos to refer to all of manifest existence, including various realms of consciousness. The term kosmos so used distinguishes a nondual Universe (which, in his view, includes both noetic and physical aspects) from the strictly physical Universe that is the concern of the traditional sciences.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links