Abstract
Anybody has a sub-conscious understanding of its environment. When shared within a homogeneous society this understanding becomes a common world view, which, expressed in words, represents a cosmography, or description of a communal world. Such a world view incorporates the totality of the collective wisdom of the community. The more individuals that contribute to the common pool of knowledge, the more difficult it becomes to define the common ground. As the well-being of a larger community, or tribe, depends on collective action, consensus cosmography is of benefit, and if not spontaneously developed, needs to be formulated and enforced by the tribal chiefs. With growing sophistication, as elements of religious and social rules and dominance creep into the dogma, intolerance of dissident views increases. For lack of better terminology, such a knowledge system defines the cosmology of a civilization.
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Notes
- 1.
The San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 1992, p.35.
- 2.
This is what Jan Smuts (1926) referred to as an error of abstraction.
- 3.
In the most recent version of inflation the phase transition no longer features.
- 4.
It is common practice in theoretical cosmology to rationalize illogical conclusions by mentioning the alleged probabilistic nature of quantum systems, out of context.
- 5.
From his debate with Copleston, quoted by Hick (1964).
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Boeyens, J.C.A. (2010). The Big Picture. In: Chemical Cosmology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3828-9_9
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