Abstract
Chapter 2 touches on precedent related to the book’s themes, including views and concepts that emphasize the importance of cosmic evolution and potential significance for life and intelligence. This chapter explores the breadth and diversity of a range of views such as (1) cosmological eschatology that focuses on the very far future of cosmic evolution, (2) “cosmic sacredness” that emphasizes a deep reverence for the cosmos and its evolution, (3) “evolutionary developmental” views that emphasize the evolutionary developmental nature of the universe and the potential to give rise to other universes through the evolution of intelligence, (4) “participatory universe” views that leverage extreme interpretations of quantum theory to suggest that observation and consciousness give rise to reality, and (5) science fiction that explores questions of significance for life and intelligence in a cosmic context.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For a treatment of Russian and American Cosmism, see Albert Harrison, 2013, Russian and American Cosmism: Religion, National Psyche, and Spaceflight. Astropolitics, Vol. 11, Issue 1–2, about which there is a related interview with Harrison by Ross Anderson in The Atlantic, called “The Holy Cosmos: The New Religion of Space Exploration” at: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/the-holy-cosmos-the-new-religion-of-space-exploration/255136/. See also A Cosmist Manifesto by Ben Goertzel, 2010, published by Humanity Plus Press.
- 2.
Tipler’s book tends to emphasize consistency with Christianity, in particular, resurrection. But in a personal email correspondence with him, it was unclear why these kinds of common features of many-world religions should be so closely identified primarily with Christianity and not more generally with many other religious traditions.
- 3.
Barlow cites Curtin (1994) who examines self-images and their role in environmentalism and worldviews, one of which is the “relational self.”
- 4.
Barlow quotes from Edwin Dobb’s 1995 article, “Without Earth there is no heaven,” Harper’s Magazine, February, pp. 33–41.
- 5.
Kant appears to have coined the term “cosmotheology” in Critique of Pure Reason to capture the idea that a “supreme being” might be inferred by experience of the world. Dick’s more contemporary use is different in that it does not require a supreme being.
- 6.
Another invocation of autocatalytic dynamics by Stuart Kauffman will be touched on later regarding the origin of life.
References
Barlow, C. (1994). Evolution extended: Biological debates on the meaning of life. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Barlow, C. (1997). Green space, green time: The way of science. New York: Springer.
Barrow, J. D., & Tipler, F. J. (1994). The anthropic cosmological principle. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Buber, M. (1937, 1970). I and Thou (W. Kauffman, Trans.). New York: Scribner’s.
Carroll, S. (2016). The big picture: On the origins of life, meaning, and universe itself. New York: Dutton.
Chaisson, E. (2005). Epic of evolution: Seven ages of the cosmos. New York: Columbia University Press.
Curtin, D. (1994). Dogen, deep ecology, and the ecological self. Environmental Ethics, 16, 195–213.
Davies, P. (2009). Life, mind, and culture as fundamental properties of the universe. In S. J. Dick & M. Lupisella (Eds.), Cosmos and culture: Cultural evolution in a cosmic context. Washington, DC: NASA History Series. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4802.pdf.
De Duve, C. (1995). Vital dust: Life as a cosmic imperative. New York: Basic Books.
de Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1955). The phenomenon of man. New York: Harper Row.
Deutsch, D. (2011). The beginning of infinity: Explanations that transform the world. London: Penguin Books.
Dick, S. J. (2000). Cosmotheology: Theological implications of the new universe. In S. J. Dick (Ed.), Many worlds: The new universe, extraterrestrial life, and the theological implications (pp. 191–210). Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press.
Dobb, E. (1995). Without Earth there is no heaven. Harper’s Magazine, February, pp. 33–41.
Dyson, F. J. (1979). Time without end: Physics and biology in an open universe. Reviews of Modern Physics, 51(3).
Gardner, J. (2005). Coevolution of the cosmic past and future: The selfish biocosm as a closed timelike curve. Complexity, 10(5) (May/June 2005), 14, 17–18.
Goertzel, B. (2010). A cosmist manifesto. Humanity+ Press.
Goodenough, U. 1998. The sacred depths of nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Guth, A. (1994). Do the laws of physics allow us to create a new universe? In G. Ekspong (Ed.), The Oskar Klein memorial lectures (Vol. 2, pp. 71–95). World Scientific Publishing.
Harrison, A. (2013). Russian and American cosmism: Religion, national psyche, and spaceflight. Astropolitics, 11, (1–2).
Johnson, E. (1997). Retrieval of the cosmos in theology. Earthlight, Spring, 8–9.
Kardashev, N. (1964). Transmission of information by extraterrestrial civilizations. Soviet Astronomy, 8, 217.
Lloyd, S. (2000). Ultimate physical limits to computation. Nature, 406, 1047–1054.
Lovejoy, A. (1936). The great chain of being. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lupisella, M. (2009). Cosmocultural evolution: The coevolution of cosmos and culture and the creation of cosmic value. In S. J. Dick & M. L. Lupisella (Eds.), Cosmos and culture: Cultural evolution in a cosmic context (pp. 321–359). NASA SP-2009-4802. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4802.pdf.
Lupisella, M. (2019). Is the universe enough? Can it suffice as a basis for worldviews? Journal of Big History, III(3), 123–140.
Smart, J. (2009). Evo Devo universe? A framework for speculations on cosmic culture. In S. J. Dick & M. Lupisella (Eds.), Cosmos and culture: Cultural evolution in a cosmic context. Washington, DC: NASA History Series.
Smolin, L. (1997). The life of the cosmos. New York: Oxford University Press.
Spencer, H. (1862, 1898). First principles of a new system of philosophy. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Spencer, H. (1864). Principles of biology (1867; 2nd ed., 1898–99). London: Williams and Norgate.
Stapledon, O. (1937). Star maker.
Stevens-Arroyo, A. M. (2012). Fire and force: Civilization as noosphere in the works of Teilhard de Chardin. Comparative Civilizations Review, 66, Spring.
Swimme, B., & Berry, T. (1992). The universe story: From the primordial flaring forth to the Ecozoic Era: A celebration of the unfolding of the cosmos. Harper.
Tipler, F. (1994). Physics of immortality. New York: Doubleday.
Vidal, C. (2014). The beginning and the end: The meaning of life in a cosmological perspective. Berlin: Springer.
Wheeler, J. A. (1990). Information, physics, quantum: The search for links. In W. Zurek (Ed.), Complexity, entropy, and the physics of information. Redwood City: Addison-Wesley.
Whitehead, A. N. (1929). Process and reality: An essay in cosmology. New York: Macmillan. Edition 1978 by D. R. Griffin & D. W. Sherbourne, New York: Macmillan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lupisella, M. (2020). Precedent. In: Cosmological Theories of Value. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25339-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25339-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25337-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25339-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)