Pre-Modern Cosmology (Prof. Münster)

1. Pre-Conditions of a Pre-Modern Anthropology
2. In his book, Future of Geography, Tim Marshall focuses on the relationship between human beings and the cosmos. The idea of the cosmos has always, as he opines, influ enced people regarding their notion of the world, and continues thus until today. The earliest stories of Genesis provided explanations for the existence of the universe, of human beings, and of the living and non-living nature. The notion of cosmic space especially influenced the various cultures and promoted scientific progress. There were three historical components (the discovery of the New World, the ancient traditions, and the Christian worldview) that were highly influential for the projection of the biosphere and life of the aliens in the outer space, all three already extensively discussed, of course, but not within the context of the rise of early modern cosmology. First: there was the discovery of the New World by the Europeans, and later also of Australia and the islands in the Pacific Ocean; but the geography of foreign continents was not the only element that attracted attention; more important was the observation of foreign cultures. Various authors resorted especially to the bi nary differences in their worldviews contrasting culture and nature, and civiliza tion versus wilderness. Accounts of travels to America and to the world of the Pacific revealed different forms of cultures, which hence resulted in partially fanciful accounts; even so, some of those ideas appear subsequently in the descriptions of the cosmos (Michael Harbsmeier, Wilde Völkerkunde. Andere Welten in deut schen Reiseberichten der Frühen Neuzeit).

When sailors began to navigate to foreign continents and had to cross open and dangerous oceans, this experience triggered the emergence of many fantastic images of monsters and other dangerous creatures, many of those inherited from traditions of the Middle Ages (Chet van Duzer, Seeungeheuer und Monsterfische. Sagenhafte Kreaturen auf alten Karten). On earth, for example, demonic animals or sea monsters tended to threaten the sailors. For instance, Olaus Magnus (1490–1557) designed the Carta Marina et de scriptio septentrionalium terrarum in 1539, in which are depicted numerous danger ous creatures (Olaus Magnus, Die Wunder des Nordens, ed. Elena Balzamo and Reinhard Kaiser). However, those portrayals proved to be difficult, though not impossible, in the minds of various early modern writers such as Francis Godwin (1562–1633) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) (Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like to Be a Bat? Wie ist es, eine Fle dermaus zu sein? (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2022), 18).

Second: Ancient Ideas. During the Renaissance, the impact of ancient philoso phers and their fanciful accounts of long-distance journeys played a decisive role, as did natural-scientific texts from that period (i.e., those by Herodotus, Gaius Pli nius Secundus Maior, and others). Already Homer refers in his Ulysses to fantastic living creatures (lotus-eaters, cyclops, laestrygonians, sirens, etc.), which the ship wrecked hero encounters on the sea and on the islands that he visits. Plato had already presented some ideas regarding cosmology in his treatise Timeus (ca. 360 B.C.E.) (Platon, Timaios, ed. Friedrich Schleiermacher, vol. 5 (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1980), 142–213). He considered the cosmos as being part of nature as a global phenomenon, that is, as a part of a world that had evolved in the course of time and as a material reality. The realm of ideas, however, he regarded as everlasting and eternal. Plato’s problem, how ever, was to find an answer to the question of how ideas and reality are con nected.

From early on, Aristarchos of Samos (310–230 B.C.E.) carried out calculations regarding the movement of planets. The Neo-Platonists Proclus (412–485 B.C.E.) and Anaxagoras (499–428 B.C.E.) promulgated the position that there would have to be life on the moon. Thinkers from the Greek atomists, among them Democri tus (460–370 B.C.E.), suspected that the outer space was populated by an infinite number of different living beings. Finally, Epicurus (341–270 B.C.E.) wrote: “There are innumerable worlds, partly similar to this world, partly dissimilar” (Epikur, Briefe, Sprüche, Werkfragmente, trans. and ed. Hans-Wolfgang Krautz (Stuttgart: Re clam, 1980), 11, no. 45). Plutarch (45–120 B.C.E.), in his treatise on the moon, discussed all the theories about the cosmos known within his lifetime. For him, the moon was a planet like earth– with wonderful landscapes, and inhabited by living beings looking very similar to people on earth: “The inhabitants of the moon, if they exist, probably have a fragile body and can survive with any kind of food” (Plutarch, Das Mondgesicht (see note 10), No. 25). For Plutarch it was important to point out that a cosmologist can find all basic elements for the devel opment of the human soul on the moon as well as on the earth (Plutarch, Das Mondgesicht (see note 10), No. 25). Lucian of Samosata (120–180 B.C.E.) wrote two narratives that became power ful inspirations for ancient and later conceptions of the moon. Those were conge nially translated by Christoph Martin Wieland into German (1788/1789) (Lukian von Samosata, Lügengeschichten und Dialoge, ed. Christoph M. Wieland (Nördlingen: Greno, 1985), 49–85). Here, the moon-voyager Ikaromenippus encountered many wild and hostile creatures on that heavenly body. These did not display a peaceful behavior toward the other living creatures; instead, they fought each other in fierce wars.

Among the Selenites (named after the goddess Selene), there existed only beings of male nature; the Dendrites (tree-like beings) could reproduce only by way of implanting their organs of reproduction in the ground of a garden. On the moon, food was not chewed and swallowed but was rather inhaled in the form of a vapor. The inhabitants of the moon mixed the bodily perspiration with tears and honey which then created a tasty cheese. When a Selenite died, he dissolved into a cloud of smoke. Lucian was very imaginative regarding the cosmos; he also voiced hefty criticism toward the conditions here on earth and inspired many authors to develop further the literary motifs and explore more deeply the questions that he had asked. Third: as a final and third point in this section on the presuppositions that shaped the descriptions of alien worlds, the role of Christian theology must be briefly addressed. The question of whether the moon and the known planets were inhabited by living creatures represented a considerable challenge for early modern theologians. Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) was one of the first to reflect upon this phenomenon, writing that: “Terrae igitur figura est nobilis et sphaerica et eius motus circularis, sed perfectior esse potest” [So the shape of the earth is noble and spherical, its movements circular, but it could be more perfect] (Nikolaus von Kues, “De docta ignorantia,” id., Philosophisch-theologische Werke, ed.Karl Bormann, vol. 2 (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2002), 94; Otto Mazal, Die Sternenwelt des Mittelalters). The theologian differentiated between many human perceptions, from which people had also created a cosmography of the universe (Kues, Philosophisch-theologische Werke, vol. 2, 94).

1. In contrast, the model and ideas of Cusanus made it possible for the first time in the late Mid dle Ages to imagine alien worlds in space which could be found beyond the known planetary system. In this way, Nicholas made it possible to imagine many additional worlds beyond our own in outer space.
2. According to Christian doctrine, God had created the earth and the cosmos in six days and placed the first people inside of paradise until they were expelled from there. Later, Christ redeemed humankind on the cross. This narrative led to a series of problematic theological discussions concerning the meaning of crea tion and redemption, triggered in the epoch of the Renaissance by the natural sci ences with their mathematical concepts and a physical worldview (natural law, natural constants), and triggered by the new cosmology as determined by the ideas of a multitude of cosmic worlds. Since the act of Genesis, i.e., the creation of nature and living beings took place in a mythological, bygone time, scientists could propose diverse opinions about the origin and further development of the cosmos at liberty. Some aspects of the discus sions at that time were: Was the creation an act of creatio ex nihilo?WhendidCre ation happen? How long has the earth existed until now? When did the Flood happen? When will the Apocalypse occur? Bishop James Ussher (1581–1656) tried to provide some answers. The day of Creation, according to his calculations, took place on October 23, 4004 (B.C.E.). The Flood occurred in 2348 (B.C.E.) (James Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamentis, a prima mundi origine deducti: Una cum rerum Asiaticorum et Aegyptiacarum chronico, A temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initio (London: Ex official J. Flesher & protestant in aedibus G. Bedell, 1650), 1–4). While Aristotle considered the cosmos eternal, Christian thought developed the idea of a beginning of nature and the cosmos and a terrible and apocalyptic end of it. Nevertheless, the Christian idea of the cosmos mostly remained, quite surprisingly, unchanged and almost static.

Theologians held that this terrestrial space created by God was imagined like an unchanging stage in the theater on which the drama of stars and planets was played out. Building on these beliefs, Francis Godwin viewed the cosmos through a Chris tian lens and revealed a close connection between Christian thinking and the no tion of the cosmos. According to his opinion, Christians lived on the earth and also on the moon.

1. The Question Concerning Pre-Modern Anthropology
2. Paolo Rossi claimed in his broadly-based history of the emergence of the early modern natural sciences that Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), Galileo Galilei (1564 1642), Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), along with several other lesser-known research ers, had destroyed ancient cosmology but not the traditional view of human kind (Paolo Rossi, Die Geburt der modernen Wissenschaft in Europa, trad. Marion Sattler Charnitzky and Christiane Büchel (Original date; Munich: Beck, 1997), 139). According to Rossi, those opposed to the Cartesian mechanics rejected Aristotelianism and were also opposed to Cartesian anthropology, that is, they did not accept the mechanistic conception of life.

1. The Mechanistic Worldview and the Image of Human Beings
2. Since the human being takes a material, corporal form in a body, it can be understood, as in the case of all other organic beings (animals, plants), as an au tomaton (machine) which God had created within the universe, consisting of a mix of substances (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Monadologie (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1956), 63). For Descartes, the human being consisted of a circulation sys tem, consisting of blood, veins, bones, nerves, and internal organs. The central aspect of this system was, according to his understanding, the life energy, a kind of internal fire that maintained the functions of the organism. That meant that human beings were also completely subjugated under the natural laws (Hans Werner Ingensiep and Heike Baranzke, Das Tier (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2008), 30–32).

New Cosmologies in the Early Modern Period

The natural scientists in the early modern period were mostly responsible for the emergence of a transformed understanding of the idea of outer space and thus prompted a revolution in the world of sciences. This innovative type of thinking was made possible not only through new theories and mathematical calculations, but also through the many technical innovations (i.e., the telescope, microscope, thermometer, barometer, hydrometer, precise clocks, air pumps to create a vac uum, and many others) (Günter Bayerl, Technik in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Stuttgart: Theiss, 2013); Klemm, Ge schichte (see note 34), 61–140). At the same time, a new foundation was established for the development of a scientific global ization: the new measuring techniques and measuring units were gradually ac cepted globally, that is, universally binding measuring units were defined that could be used to set new data collection standards for many technologies and economics.

The use of telescopes was especially important. Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) built the first observatory (1576); the Dutchman Hans Lippershey (1570–1619) devel oped an early telescope with a three-fold magnification; Galileo Galilei gazed through a telescope toward Jupiter with a magnification factor of 33, and he saw that four moons circled around the planet. Giovanni D. Cassini (1625–1712) had available since 1670 the powerful telescope by the famous lens grinder Guiseppe Campini from Rome that allowed him to discern earthly disturbances of the atmosphere. Isaac Newton (1643–1727) constructed the first mirror telescope in 1668 (Erhard Oeser, Die Suche nach der zweiten Erde: Illusion und Wirklichkeit der Weltraumforschung (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesell schaft, 2009), 69–75). Gravitational forces were also calculated, which then meant that every living being on Earth and on alien planets was apparently obeying the laws of gravity. No author, be he scientist or writer, could any longer ignore the laws of nature in his or her descriptions from that moment on. Kepler had established that there is a correlation between the orbital period of a planet and its distance from the sun. As early as 1670, Robert Hooke (1635–1703) calculated that gravity acts on all celestial bodies and that the strength of gravity depends on the distance. Kepler had established that there is a correlation between the orbital period of a planet and its distance from the sun (das Physik-Buch, ed. Jonathan Metcall et al. (Munich: Dorling Kindersley, 2020), 48–51).