more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 14169

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 1. Cosmology ]

Full Idea

The universe is a somewhat ambiguous term: it may mean all the things that exist at a single moment, or all things that ever have existed or will exist, or the common quality of whatever exists.

Gist of Idea

The 'universe' can mean what exists now, what always has or will exist

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §442)

Book Ref

Russell,Bertrand: 'Principles of Mathematics' [Routledge 1992], p.470


The 16 ideas with the same theme [origins and nature of the universe]:

The world is established, and cannot be moved [Isaiah]
Joshua said, Sun, stand thou still [Anon (Josh)]
He was the first person to say the earth is spherical [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
He was the first to discover the identity of the Morning and Evening Stars [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
Philolaus was the first person to say the earth moves in a circle [Philolaus, by Diog. Laertius]
There are unlimited worlds of varying sizes, some without life or water [Democritus, by Hippolytus]
If the Earth is spherical and in the centre, it is kept in place by universal symmetry, not by force [Plato]
Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change [Plato]
The Earth must be spherical, because it casts a convex shadow on the moon [Aristotle]
The earth must be round and of limited size, because moving north or south makes different stars visible [Aristotle]
A cosmos is a collection of stars and an earth, with some sort of boundary, movement and shape [Epicurus]
Since the cosmos produces what is alive and rational, it too must be alive and rational [Zeno of Citium]
Things are more perfect if they have reason; nothing is more perfect than the universe, so it must have reason [Zeno of Citium]
This earth is very unlikely to be the only one created [Lucretius]
The 'universe' can mean what exists now, what always has or will exist [Russell]
Is the cosmos open or closed, mechanical or teleological, alive or inanimate, and created or eternal? [Robinson,TM, by PG]