World

From Epicurus Wiki

A world (Gr. kosmos, spelled "cosmos" in Latin) is an organized realm of existence that includes both the Earth and celestial bodies, but not necessarily the whole universe. The notion of a cosmos varied widely in the realm of Greco-Roman thought and literature, and by consequence, so did the putative boundaries associated with it.

One of the early concepts of the cosmos (literally, the "adornment") was as the starlit heavens, thus adorned by the creator gods; or, perhaps, that the Earth itself had been thus adorned by the gods, who gracefully decked it with such a spectacular firmament. Epicurus supposed, however, that the world formed naturally from atomic matter coalescing into compound entities on a large scale.

The world that we inhabit, as described by Epicurus, is comprised of a flat Earth topped by a hemispherical sky. Outside our world, he claimed that there are infinite such kosmoi or worlds in the universe at large. Epicurus even expected that worlds may even exist "within worlds" – thus acknowledging hierarchical levels of structural complexity analogous to how solar systems, galaxies, and galaxy clusters are understood to be arranged in modern cosmology.

Other worlds may be similar to ours and others dissimilar. Also, some such worlds may be unstable, and thus disintegrate quickly, whereas others may be stable and lasting, thereby giving the illusion of "Intelligent Design" and intentionality in their creation.

This last argument hinged on the curious Epicurean notion of isonomia, which postulated that if there is a shortage of something in one place, there ought to be abundance of it elsewhere -- a putative, built-in equilibrium between local deficits and surpluses.