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Single Idea 2648
[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 1. Cosmology
]
Full Idea
That which has reason is more perfect than that which has not. But there is nothing more perfect than the universe; therefore the universe is a rational being.
Gist of Idea
Things are more perfect if they have reason; nothing is more perfect than the universe, so it must have reason
Source
Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]), quoted by M. Tullius Cicero - On the Nature of the Gods ('De natura deorum') II.20
Book Ref
Cicero: 'The Nature of the Gods', ed/tr. McGregor,Horace [Penguin 1972], p.132
The
16 ideas
with the same theme
[origins and nature of the universe]:
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7608
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The world is established, and cannot be moved
[Isaiah]
|
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7489
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Joshua said, Sun, stand thou still
[Anon (Josh)]
|
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1791
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He was the first person to say the earth is spherical
[Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
|
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1794
|
He was the first to discover the identity of the Morning and Evening Stars
[Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
|
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1787
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Philolaus was the first person to say the earth moves in a circle
[Philolaus, by Diog. Laertius]
|
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20911
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There are unlimited worlds of varying sizes, some without life or water
[Democritus, by Hippolytus]
|
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369
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If the Earth is spherical and in the centre, it is kept in place by universal symmetry, not by force
[Plato]
|
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309
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Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change
[Plato]
|
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402
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The Earth must be spherical, because it casts a convex shadow on the moon
[Aristotle]
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403
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The earth must be round and of limited size, because moving north or south makes different stars visible
[Aristotle]
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14051
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A cosmos is a collection of stars and an earth, with some sort of boundary, movement and shape
[Epicurus]
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20811
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Since the cosmos produces what is alive and rational, it too must be alive and rational
[Zeno of Citium]
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2648
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Things are more perfect if they have reason; nothing is more perfect than the universe, so it must have reason
[Zeno of Citium]
|
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5715
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This earth is very unlikely to be the only one created
[Lucretius]
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14169
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The 'universe' can mean what exists now, what always has or will exist
[Russell]
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5994
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Is the cosmos open or closed, mechanical or teleological, alive or inanimate, and created or eternal?
[Robinson,TM, by PG]
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