Cosmos

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For other uses, see Cosmos (disambiguation).
The Ancient and Medieval cosmos as depicted in Peter Apian's Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1539).

Cosmos is the Universe regarded as a beautifully-arranged system.[1]

Pythagoras is said to have been the first philosopher to apply the term "cosmos" (Greek κόσμος) to the Universe, perhaps referring to the starry firmament. The Ancient Greek natural philosopher Archimedes, in his essay "The Sand Reckoner," estimated the diameter of the cosmos to be equivalent in stadia to what we call two light years.

Etymology

The word derives from the Greek term κόσμος (kosmos), literally meaning "well-ordered" or "ornament" and metaphorically "world,"[2] and is antithetical to the concept of chaos in its ugly state. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the Latin loanword "Universe" (considered in its beautifully-ordered aspect). The word cosmetics originates from the same root. In many Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, and Serbian, the word kosmos (космос) also means "outer space."

Cosmology

Main article: Cosmology
Flammarion engraving, Paris 1888

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 and beauty 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.

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

Theology

In theology, the term can be used to denote the created Universe, not including the creator. In Christian theology, the word is also used synonymously with aion to refer to "worldly life" or "this world" as opposed to the afterlife or World to Come. The cosmos as originated by Pythagoras is parallel to the Zoroastrian term aša, the concept of a divine arrangement, or divinely fashioned creation.[citation needed]

See also: Religious cosmology

See also

References

  1. ↑ Definition in Merriam-Webster dictionary
  2. ↑ κόσμος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus

External links

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