GREEK COSMOLOGY

                                                          INTRODUCTION

Man continued to wonder about the cause of change in his environment, how thing worked in the universe and what made them come to be.

Greek philosophy as history will confirm, played a vital role in answering the question concerning the cosmos, the early Greek philosophers  gave their various account on the cause of existence base on what influence their  environment, gave a kind of relief to man at that time about the cosmology.

THE ROLE OF POETS

Greek poet who played an essential role in Greek philosophy, through their poems {poetry} conveyed the historical and scientific truth of that time, their poems illustrate past history of the people, their tradition and their religious background.they attempted to give answers to cosmological question, through what they wrote pertaining the universe. The Greek poets told the story of the gods and how they influenced man, how the gods acted, their similar attributes with human, just that human were immortals, the Greek gods have division of labor and each god has its own influence in the destiny of man. the cause that lay behind the biological factors, drought , abundant crop, sickness, in the Greek conception, the poets, were divinely inspired to write by the goddesses of literature and art 'muses'. the poets who also gave account of their past heroes, their triumph and fall and how the gods controlled the destiny of man. they also explained  ethical functions of the gods and the course people should take in life, actions that are right and wrong. The message the poet passed gave a comprehensive view of the cosmos and the individual place in it.

THE NATURAL ORDER ACCORDING TO HOMER

gods and goddesses play a direct role in the fates of the mortals and serve as both guides as they fulfill their destinies while at other times, are petty, cruel, and bent on destruction of the heroes. In this sense, the gods of both tales are quite fickle and have conflicting motives rather than a central, harmonious purpose that is upheld by all in union.

The gods are, in this sense, quite like the human characters whose lives they manipulate and influence; they are all prone to fits of rage, passion, concern, and outright disgust. The mortals in both of these stories are subject to these whims and while they experience favor from divine entity, they may be violently shunned by another. This creates a chaotic element in both of these texts as the wild emotions of the gods and goddesses are beyond control and do not change based on the cunning, will, or sheer might of any of the maincharacters.They are volatile, unpredictable, and fickle forces without limit and forces that cannot be altered once set into motion, unless an equal force intervenes. Nonetheless, despite these similarities in

the volatile nature of the gods, the concept of their role in fate is different because the gods in both texts view fate differently. Homer’s gods see humans as directly responsible for their own fate whereas there is a more ethereal sense of fate as destiny. The gods shape and manipulate fate in both works with various forms of temptation but to different ends and for vastly different causes and whereas Homer’s epic reflects fate as mutable, in Virgil’s tale, fate reigns supreme, even over the will of the gods.

THE MORAL IDEAL ACCORDING TO HOMER

Homer notion of virtue is those acquired by might, strength and victories, which are quite different from later moral traditions. Homeric virtueis centered on excellence, your ability to carry out task successfully and protect the people under your care.

the gods as homer portrayed held to high esteem their honor and status, they stay in their places to observe the affairs of men. in other for man to aspire like the gods they have to upgrade their status and honor, and also mortals have some similarities with the gods, they accept bribe, expressed favoritism, react negatively when annoyed, they don't reward virtue as they respond to annoyance. Mortal pay homage to the gods according to their strength for example Zeus is the greatest of all gods so he was giving the greatest homage, and the interaction between the gods and man was solely on personal interest.

homer pictured Zeus as the greatest of all gods, who other gods go to for advice and approval but he has his own flaw. Zeus glance on mortal affairs to see that justice prevail in their affairs, he detest moral wrong mortals inflict on their fellow mortals.

homer's contemporary Hesiod explain this in one of his poem, all this illustration shows that the will of the gods takes on the character of a uniform moral order.

CONFLICT WITHIN HOMERS PICTURE

These four notions were used by homer and other poet to illustrate the world order.

first which are those event which are cause with a determine intension though by capricious human or divine agent.second are those event, which are aimless, third shows that every mortal has to yield to fate, including  the gods. Fourth, the gods judge mortals with standard justice when they go against moral order, homer failed to write about the ethical judgment of the god when they go against ethical code of the world.

Homer’s writings gave a sort of foundation in Greek philosophical and scientific thought.

THE BIRTH OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

The birth of western philosophy begins in ancient Greece which produces three of the world's greatest thinker

THALES: The dates of Thales are unknown-he was certainly active in 585BC, when he is supposed to have successfully predicted a solar eclipse. He was an engineer and an advisor to the Milesianking, and is also supposed to have measured the distances of ships out at sea. Very little is known for sure about his life beyond the speculations For Thales everything in the material world was some form of water-this for him was the result of a search for some kind of all-embracing unity. Heal so had the rather odd idea (which again predated him, coming from the Egyptians) that the Earth floated on water. According to this hypothesis, water could take on many forms-indeed; it was capable of transforming itself and differentiating in to all that we see in the material world.

THALES' QUESTION

Thales was concerned with knowing the one principle that brought about all things in the world, which is sometimes call the problem of the one and the many, why we have a universe and not a multi verse and what basic principle can account for all this. This was the question that occupied all the pre Socratic philosophers.

THALES' ANSWER

According to Aristotle, the answer Thales gave was according to how thing influence the environment, seen water as very essential to life and water could change into ice; solid, gaseous; air, liquid and while digging down into the earth will lead us to water Insofar that water could attain all this state he believed that the primary source was water.

THE PROBLEM OF CHANGE

The problem of change in Thales speculation was, since water is one of the permanent and basic substances and can attain all this state, what is the principle cause of these changes, the question of "permanence and change", and the answer Thales gave was that everything was "full of gods" and some objects have animate power in them. for example magnative stone have the power to move iron, he believed that the principle of change and animation reside in things them self.

THALES' SIGNIFICANCE

Thales  position tries to explain that there is only one kind of ultimate substance, because his explanation falls on water as the ultimate substance and also his successor also followed this metaphysical monism in looking that one ultimate substance that constitute the universe.

The answer Thales gave to the question he asked, gave a contribution to the development of Greek thought in understanding the constitution of the universe. And also his position made way for philosophical dialogue.

ANAXIMANDER

According to Anaximander, the prime valor fundamental stuff, which he calledapeiron(meaning’ boundless’ or ’limitless’), was everlasting and infinite, and also imperceptible-a kind of ineffable either.He gave an elaborate theory of how everything ‘grew’ out of apeiron; this involved in an essential way 2pairs of opposite principles, called Hot or cold, and Wet or Dry .According to Anaximander, various things were spun off’ from the apeiron, by these principles- this began with a sphere of fire, which itself differentiated to form the heavenly bodies, themselves wheel- like compressed air, full of fire, with orifices from which this fire issued(eclipses being explained as blockages of these orifices).

The process of separation continued to form land,sea, air, and everything else on earth; including living things- he even postulated a kind of evolution of species. The idea of apeiron is interesting- he recognized that this primeval stuff had to be different from everything we are aware of-it had to be everlasting, the generator of all transient and perishable things in the world. Otherwise it would not be fundamental, but just another part of Nature .Anaximander also saw apeiron as governing the whole of the cosmos and its changes- in this way it held the earth at its center, and provided the motive power and energy which drives all things. For him it was ageless, immortal, and divine, and the mover or creator of everything that exists.

ANAXIMANDER'S QUESTION

Anaximander also absorbed Thales question, in knowing that one basic stuff that is fundamental to others in the universe, he was not satisfied with thales answer, for him water is just one basic stuff there is still fire, and air, water can't explain all things not even fire because fire contradicts water. with this thales pupil Anaximander philosophical criticism begins.

ANAXIMANDER'S ANSWER

For Anaximander aperion was that basic and fundamental stuff that constitute the universe, according to him aperion was boundless; that everything came out of it, eternal;it is imperishable in it all things emerged and go back, immobile and a whiling mass. Anaximander gave an answer that the aperion is neither hot or cold, and its properties cannot be defined because we can only define things that have spcific properties.

THE PROBLEM OF CHANGE

The problem of change in Anaximanders theory is that the world is made of conflicting opposite ( cold versus hot, night versus day), since this conflict arises one cannot give birth to the other ,thus the ultimate form of things must be some invisible and limitless physical substance which is capable of morphing into all the physical things that we see.

ANAXIMANDER'S SIGNIFICANCE

Anaximander's theory was the first to ground ultimate reality to something which is non-perceptible, unlike air, fire and water which we know through th senses the boundless is a substance that we cannot detect in that way.many philosophers after Anaximander similary proposed a non-sensory explanation of things.

ANAXIMENES (died528-526BC):Little is known about the life of Anaximenes.His philosophy was in some ways are version to that of Thales-instead of water he postulated air as the primary stuff.

All things then came from the compression, rare fraction,or transformation of this "Air".All these transformations are accomplished by ”Hot’and’Cold’.In contradistinction to Anaximander,these principles are not something that separate off from the primitive stuff,or even just agents of change and transformation-they are instead’attributes’ofair,ie., properties of it. In the same way as Anaximander,Anaximenes apparently also gave an elaborate theory of how various things were formed on earth and in the heavens,starting from these ideas.

ANAXIMENES QUESTION

Anaximenes also has these metaphysical monism of the one basic and fundamental stuff, he was concerned with knowing the basic substance that is the foundation of reality. Though he concord with Anaximander that the basic reality must be eternal, boundless, unlimited and single, but he disagree with him in the sense that if the basic substance is boundless we must be ale to define it, by by this he brought in philosophical criticism.

ANAXIMENES ANSWER

On Anaximenes view physical object differonly in how condensed the air is in a giving space.the more compressed ,the more it becomes solid; the less compressed the more it becomes watery.

 Air can support itself and air sustains life the primary difference between the living and the dead, Anaximenes also believed that the soul is identical to air.

ANAXIMENES SIGNIFICANCE

Anaximenes gave a more explicitly explanation on on his principles of reality than his predecessors because his explanation has a degree of scientific basics.

SUMMARY OF MELISIAN METHOD AND METAPHYSICS.

The most important contribution of the Milesians was to introduce the idea of a fundamental stuff , which some  process of differentiation gave the natural world.This was a big step away from the previous cosmogonies, which were essentially religious and usually anthropomorphic.

Instead one had a natural philosophy, with natural causes, regular mechanism of operation, speculative physical hypotheses, and the idea that the primal cause and’ substance could be imperceptible and all-pervasive.The idea of Anaximander,to make this divine,was to have great influence later on. Perhaps the most interesting thing,from our point of view,is that the Milesians were dealing with empirical propositions based to some extent on observations  about the world. Thus we are talking about the act of”hypnotizing.