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| COSMOLOGY The science of the world By it's etymology, the study should include everything inorganic; you know, rocks, minerals, some members of my family, as well as those things organic; like plants, animals, man and that quasi-life living in the bottom of my refrigerator. Actually the meaning of the word has been so constricted that Cosmology now is simply a branch of philosophy, the natural sciences be damned. . While physicists seek the cause and effects of our temporal (read corporal) world, cosmologists go a little deeper. We, if I may be so bold, use physics, but only to root out the remoter causes of the universe which observation and experiment do not make obvious. FYI, Cosmology has little to do with hair styles or make-up. That would be cosmotology, another psuedo science where the natural sciences be damned. ORIGIN Look, Aristotle started this Cosmology business, which he considered simply a branch of physics, specifically, how corporeal beings were subject to motion. His work is divided into two parts: General physics which embraces the general principles governing corporeal being. It treats of local motion and its various kinds; the origin of substantial compounds; changes in quality; changes in quantity by increase and decrease; and changes arising from motion in place, on which Aristotle hinges our notions of the infinite, of time, and of space. Special physics which deals with the various classes of beings: terrestrial bodies, celestial bodies, and man. METHODOLOGY The cosmologist seeks the ultimate causes, not off this or that class of beings or of phenomena, but of the whole material universe. He inquires into the constituent nature of corporeal beings, their destiny, and their first cause. It is clear that these larger problems are quite beyond the range and purpose of the various sciences, each of which is by its method confined to its own particular subject. Nevertheless, cosmology must borrow, and borrow largely, from the data of science, since the causes which it studies are not directly perceptible; they can be known only through phenomena which are their more or less faithful manifestations. DIVISION Cosmology, as most philosophers understand it, deals with three problems: a - The first cause of the material universe. b - The constituent causes of the world. c - The final cause of the material universe. The First Cause of the Material Universe Geology, go back as it may and as far as it may in the scientific history of the earth, must ever remain face to face with a fact that calls for explanation, viz. the existence of matter itself. Even if it could decisively prove Laplace's hypothesis, according to which all portions of this universe, earth, sun, and the whole stellar system, originally made up a single nebular class, there would still remain the very reasonable question, whence came this mass and what was its origin? Now this is precisely the question cosmology asks; and in seeking the answer it has riven rise to many systems which can always be brought under one of the following headings: (a) Monism; (b) the theory of Transitive Emanation; (c) Creationism. Monism The Monist theory is that all beings in the world are but one and the same necessary and eternal substance having within itself the sufficient reason of its existence; while the seeming diversity of things and their attributes, are but the various manifestations and evolutions of this single substance. Pantheism identifies the world with the Divine Being. This Being is ceaselessly in process of evolution; which, however, in no wise disturbs the universal identity of things. The Pantheist is either an Idealist or a Realist according to the view he takes of the nature and character of the original substance. If that substance is real he is styled a Realist, and such was Spinoza. But if the original substance is something ideal, e.g. the Ego, the Absolute, the Concept, he is styled an idealist, and such was Hegel. Transitive Emanation In the Transitive Emanation theory all beings issue from the Divine Substance much in the same way as new fruits appear on the parent tree without changing its substance and without diminishing its productive power. Creationism Creationism is the view held by the generality of spiritualistic philosophers. The universe through its endless transformations reveals its contingency: that is to say, its existence is not a necessity: therefore it must have received its existence from some other being. This first cause must be a necessary and independent one, by an omnipotent God, unless we admit an infinite series of dependent causes and so leave unsolved the problem of the world's existence. The Constituent Causes of the World In the composition of corporeal beings, four systems are of note: Mechanism; Hylomorphism (the Scholastic system); Dynamic Atomism; and Dynamism proper. Mechanism The characteristic tendency of Mechanism, i.e. of the mechanical theory, is to disregard all qualitative difference in natural phenomena and to emphasize their quantitative differences. That is to say, in this system the constituent matter of all corporeal beings is everywhere the same and is essentially homogeneous; all the forces animating it are of the same nature; they are simply modes of local motion. Furthermore, there is no internal principle of finality; in the world everything is determined by mechanical laws. To explain all cosmic phenomena, nothing is needed but mass and motion; so that all the differences observable between corporeal beings are merely differences in the amount of matter and motion. Dynamism Dynamism sees in the world only simple forces, unextended, yet essentially active. Leibniz--it was he who propounded it--was but a reaction against the Mechanism of Descartes. To these two matrix-ideas of unextended, active forces the majority of Dynamists add the principle of actio in distans. They soon found out that points without extension can touch only by completely merging the one with the other, and on their own hypothesis the points in contact would amount to nothing more than a mathematical point which could never give us even the illusion of apparent extension. To avoid this pitfall, the Dynamists bethought them of considering all bodies as aggregates of force unextended indeed but separated by intervals from one another. This system has been amended by Kant, scientists as a rule prefer the mechanical view. Hylomorphism Between these two extremes stands the Scholastic theory, known as Hylomorphism, or theory of matter and form. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), who was its author, gave it a large place in his treatises on physics and on metaphysics. The restoration movement began about the middle of the nineteenth century with the works of Kleutgen (1811-1883); Sanseverino (1811-1865), and Liberatore (1810-1892); but it was especially owing to the impulse given it by the famous Encyclical of Leo XIII, "�terni Patris" (1879), that Scholasticism regained its place of honour beside the great modern systems. The Scholastic theory can be summed up in the following propositions: Bodies both elementary and compound have an essential unity; they differ specifically, and are by their very nature extended; they possess powers or energies both passive and active which spring from their substantial nature and are inseparable from it; they have an immanent tendency toward certain special ends to be realized by the exercise of their native energies. Dynamic Atomism The only real difference between it and Mechanism lies in the fact that it attributes to bodies forces distinct from local motion; but at the same time it maintains that they are purely mechanical forces. Matter, it asserts, is homogeneous and the atom incapable of transformation. This theory, proposed by Martin and Tongiorgi, and upheld nowadays by certain scientists, is a transition between the mechanical and the Scholastic system. Its partisans, in fact, are persuaded that a theory which denies the reality of qualitative energies inherent in matter and reduces them to local motion thereby makes the true explanation of natural phenomena impossible and hands over the universe to the whims of chance. The Final Cause of the Material Universe The final cause is intimately bound up with that of the first cause. Materialists like Hackel and B�chner, who refuse to see in the universe a plan or a purpose, can assign no goal to cosmic evolution. In their opinion, natural forces follow no preconceived aim. Pantheists and all who identify God with matter share as a rule the same view. For them the condition of the world is but the fatal result of purposeless evolution; so that the world is its own end or rather is itself the term of its existence and activity. Those who believe in the existence of a personal God can never admit that an all-wise being created without a purpose. And since a perfect and independent being can have no other than himself as the final aim of his action, it follows that the ultimate end of creation is to manifest the glory of the Creator, man being the intermediary, and, as it were, the high-priest of the material world. The welfare of man himself is the secondary purpose of creation. The material universe and in the service it renders him a means of rising to perfect happiness in the possession of God. |
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| Book of Enoch 1 The words of the blessing of Enoch, where with he blessed the elect and righteous, who will be 2 living in the day of tribulation, when all the wicked and godless are to be removed. And he took up his parable and said, "Enoch a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is 3 for to come. Concerning the elect I said, and took up my parable concerning them: The Holy Great One will come forth from His dwelling, 4 And the eternal God will tread upon the earth, (even) on Mount Sinai, [And appear from His camp] And appear in the strength of His might from the heaven of heaven. 5 And all shall be smitten with fear, And the Watchers shall quake . . . |
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