Philosophical cosmology, philosophy of cosmology
or philosophy of cosmos is a discipline directed
to the philosophical contemplation of the
universe as a totality, and to its conceptual
foundations.
It draws on several branches of philosophy—metaphysics,
epistemology, philosophy of physics, philosophy
of science, philosophy of mathematics, and
on the fundamental theories of physics.
The term cosmology was used at least as early
as 1730, by German philosopher Christian Wolff,
in Cosmologia Generalis.
== Overview ==
Philosophical cosmology can be distinguished
by two types of cosmological arguments: deductive
and inductive cosmological arguments.
The first type has a long tradition in the
history of philosophy, proposed by thinkers
like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Leibniz,
and criticized by thinkers like David Hume,
Immanuel Kant and Bertrand Russell, while
the latter has been formulated by philosophers
like Richard Swinburne.
For Leibniz, all the plenum of the universe
is entirely filled with tiny Monads, which
cannot fail, have no constituent parts and
have no windows through which anything could
come in or go out.
In his Aesthetics, philosopher José Vasconcelos
explains his theory on the evolution of the
universe and the restructuring of its cosmic
substance, in the physical, biological and
human orders.
Philosophical cosmology tries to respond questions
such as:
What is the provenance of the cosmos?
What are the essential constituents of the
cosmos?
Does the cosmos have an ulterior motive?
How does the cosmos behave?
How can we understand the cosmos in which
we find ourselves?
== See also ==
Cosmogony
Cosmology
Ernan McMullin
Physical cosmology
Religious cosmology
