Cosmos always seems to be something far and unknown. Is it so? What exactly is the lexical meaning of the word "cosmos"? How does this concept develop and develop at different times?
The lexical meaning of the word
Cosmos is a word that came to us from the Greek language, where it means "order, order, peace." It came into the Russian language with some transformation of meaning. The explanatory meaning of the word "cosmos" in the dictionaries of Ozhegov and Dahl is indicated as "world", "Universe", but it is interpreted more likely as space outside the earth's atmosphere.
This term was coined in ancient Greece. He became part of culture and philosophy, meaning the harmony and orderliness of the world. He related to the universe, the divine principle. However, even then people were interested in astronomy and the study of celestial bodies, so many scientists identified the cosmos with the Universe (in the modern sense).
For a long time, philosophical and scientific concepts were practically not differentiated. Cosmos was represented as a single organism with soul and mind, and man as its part. Along with this, scientists figured out the trajectories of the planets, discovered stars and galaxies. This happened in the Middle Ages. True, the two concepts are increasingly moving away from each other.
Nowadays, the lexical meaning of the word "cosmos" more often represents scientific meaning and means the territory outside the Earth and its atmosphere. In this understanding, the term "outer space" is often used.
Space: the meaning of the word in philosophy
The palm in determining the meaning of the word should be given to astronomical science. But the second meaning of this term is still preserved as a philosophical category. It is also a basic concept in metaphysics and seems to be a holistic structure that has certain properties.
Philosophy considers the basic characteristics of the Cosmos to be the formality and emphasis of components, a clear hierarchy of components, and dynamism. It is assumed that he has logicality, coherence and regularity. This, in turn, leads to harmony and aesthetic perfection.
Cosmos is identified with order, rationality, which means it is predictable. It can be predicted and even modeled. In contrast to it stands Chaos, which represents a destructive, uncontrolled force.
Space
The modern lexical meaning of the word "cosmos" primarily means interstellar space, which does not include the territory of our planet. The term is also used in the combinations “near space” and “deep space”. The first represents the space that man explores, the second has in mind a more distant territory - stars and galaxies.
The division into near and deep space appeared in the second half of the 20th century, when the United States and the Soviet Union actively explored outer space. Then great progress was made in the study of the moon, the first artificial satellites were created. Man first appeared in interstellar space, first landed on a natural satellite of the Earth.
Mythology and religion
Mythopoietic creativity also affects the concept of space. Here, along with ancient philosophical ideas, it is associated with the universe. Myths that tell about the creation of the world are called cosmogonic.
Most of them report a single ocean from which all life is born. For some peoples, for example the Scandinavian, space is born out of chaos. That is, out of universal disorder, world order and harmony arise.
However, creating a world order is not everything. They need to be managed somehow. Therefore, in many ancient representations, the deity manages the cosmos. In Greek myths, this role was performed by Zeus. Now mythological motifs have grown into religion. But the essence remained - the great divine principle rules the world order and harmony.