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Cosmos

A complex and orderly system, such as our universe; the opposite of chaos.

A complex, well-ordered, and unified system, usually referring to the world of human experience or to the universe as a whole. The verb in Greek means to put in order and to adorn, hence our words ‘cosmetic’ and ‘cosmetologist’. In referring to the universe as cosmos rather than as chaos, the classical Greeks defined reality as a homogeneous, ordered whole. In contrast, modern Western culture has tended to view reality dualistically, splitting it into subject and object, humanity and nature, mind and matter. Contemporary thinkers who attempt to reclaim the universe as cosmos have been forced to abandon the fixed structure of classical cosmologies in light of the pervasively evolutionary character of the universe revealed by modern science. Nonetheless, such thinkers -- whether they are religious or secular -- share the desire of the ancient Greeks to provide a consistent and meaningful framework for the world of human experience, by relating it to the principles governing all of reality.

Contributed by: CTNS

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Anthropic Principle
Anthropology
Antimatter
Aquinas, Thomas (1225-1274)
Argument From Design, The
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Atomic Theory Of Matter
Atomism
Augustine, St. (354-430 CE)
B.C.E.
Bacon, Francis (1561-1626)
Barth, Karl (1886-1968)
Bergson, Henri (1859-1941)
Big Bang Cosmology
Black Hole
Block Universe
Bohm, David
Bohr, Niels (1885-1962)
Bosons
C.E.
Chaos Theory
Chromosome
Classical Mechanics
Classical Thermodynamics
Conservation Laws
Contemporary Cosmology
Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473-1543)
Cosmology
Cosmos
Darwin, Charles (1809-1882)
Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)
Deism
Determinism
Dirac, Paul (1902-84)
DNA
Double-Helix
Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
Electromagnetism
Electron
Electroweak Force
Entropy
Epicurus (341-270 BCE)
Eukaryotes
Everett, Hugh
Evolutionary Biology
Fermi, Enrico (1901-1954)
Fermions
Feynman, Richard (1918-1988)
Field Theory
Flowing Time
Future lightcone
Galileo (1564-1642)
General Relativity
Genome
Gluon
Graviton
Heisenberg, Werner (1901-1976)
Hubble, Edwin (1889-1953)
Hume, David (1711-76)
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-95)
Kabbalah
Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)
Kepler, Johannes
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Lemaître, Abbé Georges (1894-1966)
Length Contraction
Leptons
Lucretius, Titus Lucretius Carus (99/94-55/51 BCE)
Luther, Martin (1483-1546)
Magna Carta (or Magna Charta)
Metaphysical
Natural Selection
Natural Theology
Neutrino
Newton, Isaac (1642-1727)
Newtonian Physics
Nihilism
Nucleotide
Particle Physics
Past Lightcone
Philo, Judaeus (c. 20 BCE-c. 50 CE)
Photon
Planck, Max (1858-1947)
Polanyi, Michael (1891-1976)
Prokaryotes
Ptolemy, Claudius Ptolemaeus (c. 2nd century CE)
Quantum Field Theory
Quantum Theory
Quantum
Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
Sanskrit
Singularity
Soteriology
Spacetime
Special Relativity
Spinoza, Baruch (or Benedictus) (1632-77)
Summa Theologica
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1881-1955)
Tertullian (c. 160-220 CE)
Theism
Theodicy
Tillich, Paul Johannes (1886 - 1965)
Timaeus
Time Dilation
Twin Paradox
Vedas
Whitehead, A.N. (1861-1947)
Wigner, Eugene (1902-1995)