Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology
Abstract: Contemporary cosmologists in their fascination about the beginning of the universe echo Aristotle's observation that the «beginning of anything is the most important part, being indeed half of the whole»'. As Aristotle notes in the Poetics2, a beginning is that which does not...
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Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
2021
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| Acceso en línea: | https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/12848 |
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I33-R139123456789-12848 |
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Universidad Católica Argentina |
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I-33 |
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R-139 |
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Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) |
| language |
Inglés |
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Tomás de Aquino, Santo, 1225?-1274 COSMOLOGIA ORIGEN TOMISMO |
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Tomás de Aquino, Santo, 1225?-1274 COSMOLOGIA ORIGEN TOMISMO Carroll, William E. Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology |
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Tomás de Aquino, Santo, 1225?-1274 COSMOLOGIA ORIGEN TOMISMO |
| description |
Abstract: Contemporary cosmologists in their fascination about the beginning of the
universe echo Aristotle's observation that the «beginning of anything is the most
important part, being indeed half of the whole»'. As Aristotle notes in the Poetics2,
a beginning is that which does not have anything necessarily before it but does have
something necessarily following from it. «Beginning» is a relative term; it is used in
many contexts, and, as we will see, confusion in analyses about beginnings pervades
almost all of current cosmological reflection on the beginning of the universe. Here
again Aristotle offers a helpful warning: a small mistake in the beginning can
produce large distortíons in what follows.
Recent studies in particle physics and astronomy have produced dazzling
speculations about the early history of the universe. Cosmologists now routinely
entertain elaborate scenarios which propose to describe what the universe was like
when it was the size of a softball, a mere 10' second after the Big Bang. The
description of the emergence of four fundamental forces and twelve discrete subatomic
particles is almost a common-place in modern physics. There is little doubt
among scientists that we live in the aftermath of a giant explosion which occurred
around 15 billion years ago —give or take a few billion3.
The story of the gradual acceptance of Big Bang cosmology begins with the
initial arguments for it by Georges Lemaitre, George Gamow, and others in the late
1920s and 1930s4. Lemaitre was able to combine Einstein's theory of relativity with the astronomical observations of Edwin Hubble5 to propose the theory that the
entire universe is evolving in time from a «primeval atom», a superdense state of
matter that somehow «exploded». Since the history of science is frequently written
from the point of view of the winners, it is easy to forget how controversia) the
claim was that the universe is expanding. |
| format |
Artículo |
| author |
Carroll, William E. |
| author_facet |
Carroll, William E. |
| author_sort |
Carroll, William E. |
| title |
Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology |
| title_short |
Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology |
| title_full |
Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology |
| title_fullStr |
Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Thomas Aquinas and big bang cosmology |
| title_sort |
thomas aquinas and big bang cosmology |
| publisher |
Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/12848 |
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AT carrollwilliame thomasaquinasandbigbangcosmology |
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Repositorios |
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