We are currently seeking submissions for future volumes of Culture and Cosmos.
Volume 1, No. 1
Volume 1, No. 1
Early Greek Cosmology: A Historiographical Review
Norris S. Hetherington
Download full article (pdf)
Abstract
Early Greek cosmology has attracted much attention from classicists,
historians, philosophers, and scientists, with each group bringing to the
subject its own interests and biases. Purportedly authoritative
reconstructions and analyses of ancient Greek cosmology exist in
abundance, even though no philosophical writings of the Presocratic
period, circa 600 to 400 BC, have survived. The Greeks’ attempt to
explain celestial phenomena in natural terms and to avoid supernatural or
divine intervention is a common theme linking many otherwise disparate
scholarly studies. A frequent point of dispute involves the degree to
which ancient ideas are to be judged in the context of modern science.
