Kosmos (Humboldt)
Encyclopedia
Kosmos was an influential treatise on science and nature written by the German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt
. Kosmos began as a lecture series delivered by Humboldt at the University of Berlin, and was published in five volumes between 1845 and 1862 (the fifth was posthumous and incomplete). Widely read by academics and laymen alike, it applied the ancient Greek view of the orderliness of the cosmos
(the universe) to the Earth, suggesting that universal laws applied as well to the apparent chaos of the terrestrial world. Controversially for the time, Humboldt in Kosmos spoke of the spirituality of the natural world only in general terms, avoiding the notion of a creator.
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
. Kosmos began as a lecture series delivered by Humboldt at the University of Berlin, and was published in five volumes between 1845 and 1862 (the fifth was posthumous and incomplete). Widely read by academics and laymen alike, it applied the ancient Greek view of the orderliness of the cosmos
Cosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
(the universe) to the Earth, suggesting that universal laws applied as well to the apparent chaos of the terrestrial world. Controversially for the time, Humboldt in Kosmos spoke of the spirituality of the natural world only in general terms, avoiding the notion of a creator.