Cosmology in Antiquity (Sciences of Antiquity)

The popularity of Stephen Hawking's work has put cosmology backin the public eye. The question of how the universe began, and whyit hangs together, still puzzles scientists. Their puzzlement begantwo and a half thousand years ago when Greek philosophers first'looked up at the sky and formed a theory of everything.' Thoughtheir solutions are little credited today, the questions remainfresh.The early Greek thinkers struggled to come to terms with andexplain the totality of their surroundings; to identitify anoriginal substance from which the universe was compounded; and toreconcile the presence of balance and proportion with the apparentdisorder of the universe.Rosemary Wright examines the cosmological theories of the `naturalphilosophers' from Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes to Plato, theStoics and the NeoPlatonists. The importance of Babylonian andEgyptian forerunners is emphasised.Cosmology in Antiquity is a comprehensive introduction to thecosmological thought of antiquity, the first such survey sinceNeugebauer's work of 1962.