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Article: Chaos, Religious and Philosophical Aspects
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
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Chaos, Religious and Philosophical Aspects
The word
chaos
appears in a variety of scholarly disciplines. This entry will address its use in the Greek philosophical tradition and a number of religious traditions. Chaos will also be explored in its use in scientific cosmology.
Religious and philosophical traditions
It is characteristic of ancient Greek thought to see the world (
cosmos
) as coming into existence through the imposition of order on preexisting
chaos.
The first known usage of the term
chaos
is in the
Theogony
of Hesiod (late eight century b.c.e.); Hesiod probably took up the idea from earlier mythological accounts of the beginning of the universe. For Hesiod, chaos ...