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The Book Of The Cosmos: Imagining The Universe From Heraclitus To Hawking
So many books published these days seem to deliberately ignore the forest for the trees, or the leaves, or the chloroplasts, or the chemistry of biopigments. Readers interested in big questions usually have to make do with the obligatory summing-up at the end, in which the author tries to justify his or her narrow interest through heroic feats of recontextualization. The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking, on the other hand, is 600 pages of well-expressed deep thought on the biggest picture of them all. In roughly chronological order, editor Dennis Danielson presents 85 sets of excerpts from big thinkers from biblical times to the present, introducing each to the modern reader with insightful running commentary that is consistently helpful without being obtrusive.
The ancient Greeks hit the ground running, leaving us a rich conceptual legacy, which we are still exploring and exploiting even as our own work becomes more and more machine-mediated. Danielson gives us a wide base of ancient thought to give a sense of our heritage. He includes both obvious choices, such as Plato, and lesser-known writers, such as Parmenides. The often neglected Middle Ages brought us Ptolemy, Moses Maimonides, and others who set the stage for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and the writings from these times betray an unexpected continuity of thought between the ancient and modern eras. Of course, the late-20th-century selections of such writers as Freeman Dyson and Steven Weinberg, which close the book, shouldn't imply an end to cosmological thinking. If anything, the last chapters of The Book of the Cosmos provoke a hunger for more. --Rob Lightner
500 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 9, 2021
Fantastic anthology, one of my favorite texts assigned in grad school. Danielson assembles essays from 85 experts, science historians, and modern scientists on cosmology and astronomy and presents them in chronological order, revealing how our understanding of the universe evolved throughout recorded time. Hugely helpful for coming up to speed on the "state of the art," since every insight builds on those that came before (sometimes by disproving the best explanations that were previously available).
Tours de force through time, like this one, go a long way toward refuting the natural but erroneous assumption that our contemporary era has a special monopoly on rationality. It's very easy to fall into this way of thinking because, generally speaking, our tools for observation and measurement are more powerful and precise. It does not follow that our wits are analogously sharper as well. When scientists of the ancient and recent past were factually wrong, they were sometimes spectacularly wrong, making it easy to be distracted by the spectacle and miss how good their reasoning was given the data they had. The Book of the Cosmos brings home that "on the shoulders of giants" is no idle phrase.
Tours de force through time, like this one, go a long way toward refuting the natural but erroneous assumption that our contemporary era has a special monopoly on rationality. It's very easy to fall into this way of thinking because, generally speaking, our tools for observation and measurement are more powerful and precise. It does not follow that our wits are analogously sharper as well. When scientists of the ancient and recent past were factually wrong, they were sometimes spectacularly wrong, making it easy to be distracted by the spectacle and miss how good their reasoning was given the data they had. The Book of the Cosmos brings home that "on the shoulders of giants" is no idle phrase.
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November 7, 2025I understood very little of any of the contents of this book. The science stuff was all over my head, but it closes with a wonderful quote from a preacher which I thoroughly enjoyed:
“I am not a theologian, nor have I solved the riddles of existence, of time, of sin and forgiveness, of prayer. I cannot prove that God exists, or that God's claim on our lives is what makes life ultimately meaningful. But do the heavens declare the glory of God? I think so. The universe is so full of such wonderful things that I can hardly think otherwise. Holding this view makes my understanding of the world richer and more coherent. But I can't prove it. I can only conclude with Pascal: The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.”
“I am not a theologian, nor have I solved the riddles of existence, of time, of sin and forgiveness, of prayer. I cannot prove that God exists, or that God's claim on our lives is what makes life ultimately meaningful. But do the heavens declare the glory of God? I think so. The universe is so full of such wonderful things that I can hardly think otherwise. Holding this view makes my understanding of the world richer and more coherent. But I can't prove it. I can only conclude with Pascal: The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.”
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November 29, 2023I cannot give this book a rating because I will look like a fool. It’s full of amazing things, well-written things that are so incredible and complex and I don’t understand them at ALL. Also because I have a biased opinion of this book as it was something akin to a torture device veiled as cosmo homework. I’m so so glad that’s over.
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November 24, 2024the reign of the cosmo journals is over 😍🙏🏻
September 20, 2014
I read this book some time ago and copied this paragraph review from a longer article that appeared in The Writer in 2001.
From the SF Section, I took the escalator to the Science Section and was immediately entranced by The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking (Perseus Publishing) edited by Dennis Richard Danielson. This 500-page book looks at how western culture has viewed the nature of the universe down through the ages from sacred writings to modern physicists. Danielson, an English professor, brings a literary sensibility to his millennia-spanning collection. He includes writings by familiar scientists (Archimedes, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Hawking) as well as their ecclesiastical and secular supporters and critics. More surprising, he includes the poet Dante, playwright George Bernard Shaw, and genre writers G. K. Chesterton, Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Clarke. Eighty-five brief "chapters" are organized into six chronological sections from the ancients in "Cosmological Origins" to the moderns in "Beginning and Ends." Danielson reminds us that "cosmos" comes from the Greek word that means to make order out of chaos. He succeeds in imposing his order on these myriad materials as well as "evoking the very mixture of beauty and awe that draws us to contemplate this great universe in the first place."
From the SF Section, I took the escalator to the Science Section and was immediately entranced by The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking (Perseus Publishing) edited by Dennis Richard Danielson. This 500-page book looks at how western culture has viewed the nature of the universe down through the ages from sacred writings to modern physicists. Danielson, an English professor, brings a literary sensibility to his millennia-spanning collection. He includes writings by familiar scientists (Archimedes, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Hawking) as well as their ecclesiastical and secular supporters and critics. More surprising, he includes the poet Dante, playwright George Bernard Shaw, and genre writers G. K. Chesterton, Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Clarke. Eighty-five brief "chapters" are organized into six chronological sections from the ancients in "Cosmological Origins" to the moderns in "Beginning and Ends." Danielson reminds us that "cosmos" comes from the Greek word that means to make order out of chaos. He succeeds in imposing his order on these myriad materials as well as "evoking the very mixture of beauty and awe that draws us to contemplate this great universe in the first place."
December 1, 2025
I love the concept of this book, I just didn’t love the selection of texts, or perhaps it was the totality of it, given that it is covering such a large time period. The texts are grouped chronologically (I think) and divided into chapters where each chapter has a topic. But for me the overall feeling was a mixed bag. I did however love some of the texts and the book enabled me to discover some new texts and authors that I will look more into.
I recently read a similar work, The Dawn of Modern Cosmology: From Copernicus to Newton, which I loved. Perhaps that one worked better because it was more focused on a specific time and subject.
I recently read a similar work, The Dawn of Modern Cosmology: From Copernicus to Newton, which I loved. Perhaps that one worked better because it was more focused on a specific time and subject.
April 23, 2020
This anthology edited by Dennis Richard Danielson cuts straight to the heart of why I find astronomy interesting. The excerpts from a host of sources traces the development of western thought on the origin, purpose and fate of the cosmos. Of course the theories only get the briefest of treatments, which is occasionally frustrating. But limits on time and space at least allow for a fairly comprehensive overview of what we think and how we feel about the universe.
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November 28, 2023One of the coolest books I've ever read-- a whole lot went over my head, but even that served to give me a better appreciation of just how wonderfully and beautifully complex our universe is. The heavens do indeed declare the glory of God, and it is simply stunning that I can step outside and get an infinitesimal glimpse of that glory displayed in creation.
August 14, 2023
Great stories of great scientists or natural philosophers.
August 23, 2025
To initiates into the mutually referable subjects of cosmogony, cosmology, astrophysics & the conceptual challenges that quantum mechanics presents, this is a very helpful chronological guide regarding the development of a vast intellectual entanglement that can fundamentally be boiled down to one of the cardinal primordial questions posed ever so tacitly by mankind since the dawn of its race:
What are the heavens?...
Providing insightful commentary before each excerpt, the editor proves an invaluable & much required clarifier for any novitiate into these topics - like yours truly - & having shut the book after finishing the final five-hundred & twenty-eighth page...I find myself awash in a contemplation of awe that spawns a plethora of questions with each theory presented within, resulting in boundless obfuscation (in contrast with my previous assumptions) as to the nature of that darkness that so relentlessly circumscribes us; but, notwithstanding, with an infinitely deepened sense of understanding & association with the material accumulated over centuries of inquiry & discourse by a seriously imaginative selection of minds that all the more enriches my wonder...
In other words, beginning with passages from the Bible & fittingly concluding with a sermon by Owen Gingerich, a contemporary Senior Astronomer, this wide-spanning anthology comprehensively sows a thread from an incalculable morass of sources into a coherent narrative tapestry of humanity's understanding of the cosmos by tracing its own scientific & observational advancements across the millennia. It's an undertaking that is respectable, all the more so because it was done well; it's prudently assembled & skillfully integrated wherein each proceeding chapter speaks to the last. The only drawback is that, despite the benefits of its economy, my intrigued mind wishes it were longer & that certain terms were lent some lucidity in the glossary beyond just a mention that assumes I have background knowledge in such things as the laws of thermodynamics, Planck's Constant, etc.
Although, I'll admit, even though this would have been a frustration when this was originally published in the year two-thousand, one can now easily pause their reading to refer to any unclear principle or law of physics(or what have you) with a simple search engine entry on their pocket device of choice.
What are the heavens?...
Providing insightful commentary before each excerpt, the editor proves an invaluable & much required clarifier for any novitiate into these topics - like yours truly - & having shut the book after finishing the final five-hundred & twenty-eighth page...I find myself awash in a contemplation of awe that spawns a plethora of questions with each theory presented within, resulting in boundless obfuscation (in contrast with my previous assumptions) as to the nature of that darkness that so relentlessly circumscribes us; but, notwithstanding, with an infinitely deepened sense of understanding & association with the material accumulated over centuries of inquiry & discourse by a seriously imaginative selection of minds that all the more enriches my wonder...
In other words, beginning with passages from the Bible & fittingly concluding with a sermon by Owen Gingerich, a contemporary Senior Astronomer, this wide-spanning anthology comprehensively sows a thread from an incalculable morass of sources into a coherent narrative tapestry of humanity's understanding of the cosmos by tracing its own scientific & observational advancements across the millennia. It's an undertaking that is respectable, all the more so because it was done well; it's prudently assembled & skillfully integrated wherein each proceeding chapter speaks to the last. The only drawback is that, despite the benefits of its economy, my intrigued mind wishes it were longer & that certain terms were lent some lucidity in the glossary beyond just a mention that assumes I have background knowledge in such things as the laws of thermodynamics, Planck's Constant, etc.
Although, I'll admit, even though this would have been a frustration when this was originally published in the year two-thousand, one can now easily pause their reading to refer to any unclear principle or law of physics(or what have you) with a simple search engine entry on their pocket device of choice.
May 17, 2023
The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking [2000] – ★★★★
This book is a collection of essays, book extracts and summaries of various physicists, philosophers, writers and clergymen’s perceptions of the universe through the ages. From ancient thinkers (such as Aristotle and Plato) to present-day authors (such as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking), Dennis Richard Danielson compiles thoughts and opinions on the discovery of the universe and its nature from eighty-five notable people, and most essays try to bridge science, religion and mysticism in explaining the universe. So in these writings, Greek polymath Eratosthenes (278 – 194 BC) provides a solution to measuring Earth, Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138 – 1204) challenges the anthropocentric vision of the universe and its creation, German physician Heinrich Olbers (1758 – 1840) grapples with the question of why the sky is dark at night if the universe is infinite and the sheer number of stars mean that we should see light in every direction we look, first professional female astronomer in America, Maria Mitchell (1818 – 1889), talks about her discovered telescopic comet, Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835 – 1910) speculates about the canals of Mars, American scientist Vera Rubin (1928 – 2016) explains dark matter and British physicist Paul Davis (1946 -) maintains in his work that “our understanding of the universe’s existence and properties lies outside the usual categories of rational thought”, among other astronomical writings from such people as Copernicus, Kepler, Newton and Herschel.
Even though it is a bit hard at times to differentiate between the editor’s own thoughts and conclusions, and various authors’ opinions presented, and it does not help that Danielson often cherry-picks through the authors’ ideas in their works, this book is still a recommended one, particularly for those interested in the evolution of cosmological knowledge and in the history of science in general.
This book is a collection of essays, book extracts and summaries of various physicists, philosophers, writers and clergymen’s perceptions of the universe through the ages. From ancient thinkers (such as Aristotle and Plato) to present-day authors (such as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking), Dennis Richard Danielson compiles thoughts and opinions on the discovery of the universe and its nature from eighty-five notable people, and most essays try to bridge science, religion and mysticism in explaining the universe. So in these writings, Greek polymath Eratosthenes (278 – 194 BC) provides a solution to measuring Earth, Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138 – 1204) challenges the anthropocentric vision of the universe and its creation, German physician Heinrich Olbers (1758 – 1840) grapples with the question of why the sky is dark at night if the universe is infinite and the sheer number of stars mean that we should see light in every direction we look, first professional female astronomer in America, Maria Mitchell (1818 – 1889), talks about her discovered telescopic comet, Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835 – 1910) speculates about the canals of Mars, American scientist Vera Rubin (1928 – 2016) explains dark matter and British physicist Paul Davis (1946 -) maintains in his work that “our understanding of the universe’s existence and properties lies outside the usual categories of rational thought”, among other astronomical writings from such people as Copernicus, Kepler, Newton and Herschel.
Even though it is a bit hard at times to differentiate between the editor’s own thoughts and conclusions, and various authors’ opinions presented, and it does not help that Danielson often cherry-picks through the authors’ ideas in their works, this book is still a recommended one, particularly for those interested in the evolution of cosmological knowledge and in the history of science in general.
September 10, 2016
Read + Journaled: Intro, 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,23,24,26,27,30,31,33,34,36,38,40, 41,42,44,47,51,52,54,55,5,58,59,60,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,84,85
May 30, 2016
This is a fascinating compilation of how our understanding of the cosmos has evolved since ancient times, and how the people who articulated the possibilities drew upon those who preceded them. It was hard for me to wrap my head around some of the notions and theories that were advanced from age to age. It took close reading (and re-reading) of passages to grasp what came out of the minds of these scholars, philosophers, theologians, and scientists. This is a read that stretches and exercises the mind.
May 25, 2008
This book is good to read when your on a hike or traveling by yourself.
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June 26, 2008Interesting collection of writings from philosophers, theologians, scientists etc. about the origins of the universe.
August 15, 2015
Excellent anthology of many famous persons' thoughts on the cosmos
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November 21, 2009None
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews