Cosmic Perspective Research Articles

QUESTIONING THE SKULL: ZHUANGZI AND HAMLET ON DEATH

This article aims to explore some aspects of our shared human experience of death through a parallel reading of Hamlet and Zhuangzi. These two classics belong to radically different cultural contexts, and both have traditionally been interpreted as texts in between philosophy and literature. As such, I hope this article will be of some interest for both students of world literature and transcultural philosophy, disciplines that, despite the contemporary academic distinctions, share much in common. Section 1 highlights some differences and similarities between Hamlet and Zhuangzi. Section 2 proceeds by elucidating three aspects of the problem of death approached by both texts (uncertainty; the death of others; my death). Section 3 examines two predominant perspectives in Chinese and European cultural backgrounds (the “individual” and the “cosmic” perspectives). Sections 4 analyzes how Hamlet approaches uncertainty, the death of others and my death from the individual perspective, while section 5 does the same for the cosmic perspective in Zhuangzi. In section 6, the two mirroring passages of the dialogues with the skull are compared, showing how the individual and the cosmic perspectives mutually implicate each other as two sides of the same coin.

A cosmic perspective.

A cosmic perspective.

Antinatalist procreationism and humanity's cosmic significance

In this article, I explore several prominent arguments forwarded by advocates of the antinatalist philosophy. Mainly, I assess the asymmetry argument, the argument concerning the lack of consent by future individuals, the arguments about the quality and meaning of life, and the imposition argument. After identifying some issues with the asymmetry argument and underscoring the strengths of the other arguments, I propose a form of antinatalism that accepts procreation under narrowly defined circumstances to avert species extinction and its potentially catastrophic consequences from a cosmic perspective.

Wholeness for Life and Life Eternal: A Perspective from Ubuntu, Paul’s Reconciliation Theology, and the New Cosmology

The idea of cosmos unity is not recent. It has been proposed from various viewpoints throughout human history as the locus of life. To begin with, the African worldview of Ubuntu tells the story of life from the experience of a cosmic perspective that upholds the primacy of the community and asserts that a truly fulfilling and complete life is attainable only by those who belong to the cosmic whole. There is no ‘I’ without ‘we’; “Because we are, I am”. And, unless the “I” belongs to “we”, there is no life, biological or ancestral, after death. On its part, Paul’s cosmology, generally understood as proposing a two/three-tiered cosmos, has a different viewpoint when seen from a closer look. Even if he would have agreed with his religious ancestors that sin had divided reality and that diastema is to blame for the cosmos fragmentation, Paul still recounts the story of a cosmic whole. His theology of reconciliation makes that unity more evident when he suggests that through Christ, the cosmos is reconciled, and life is restored. To belong to the cosmic whole is to be reconciled with God and have eternal life. From a third perspective, today’s new cosmological investigations have uncovered the unfolding story of the grand unity and complexity of the universe, which is the only locus of life known to humanity. In this universe of connectivity and entanglement, one can scientifically appreciate the absence of fragments and observe the complexified unity of all things indispensable for living. These three stories reveal that togetherness and the experience of the cosmic whole are fundamental for life and the taste of eternal life.

Scientists' warning to humanity for long-term planetary thinking on biodiversity and humankind preservation, a cosmic perspective.

Scientists' warning to humanity for long-term planetary thinking on biodiversity and humankind preservation, a cosmic perspective.

As (Un)Seen from Space: Soviet Collapse and the Unwatchable in Andrei Ujică's Out of the Present

abstract: Andrei Ujică's 1995 documentary Out of the Present tells the story of Sergei Krikalev, the last Soviet cosmonaut, who was stranded aboard the Mir space station from May 18, 1991, to March 25, 1992. He was thus one of two former Soviet citizens to watch the collapse of the USSR from space. Through a comparison of Out of the Present with Theo Anthony's 2021 documentary All Light, Everywhere , this article examines the conditions, processes, and contradictions of recording and observing the present from a cosmic perspective. This analysis is performed through the critical frameworks of the unwatchable, which explore the limits of visibility in visual media. My interpretation of Out of the Present contributes to the discourse on the unwatchable by introducing the problem of the political subject and the way in which the political determining of the eye governs the field of watchability.

Cosmic Perspectives: Scalar Projects and Worldmaking Literacies

A teacher explores the concepts of scale and perspective with his students as they consider what it means to share the planet with others while imagining more hopeful and just worlds.

The logos Christology in the fourth gospel (Jn 1:1–5, 14): A soteriological response to an Ewe cosmic prayer

This article interprets the logos Christology in the fourth gospel within Ewe-Ghanaian cosmic setting. The article employs a combination of the exegetical and mother tongue biblical hermeneutics as its methodologies. The article compares the concept of the logos in John 1:1–5, 14 with a similar concept in Ewe cosmology with the aim of finding their points of convergence and divergence. The article also identifies linguistic and theological gaps in the Ewe rendition of John 1:1–5, 14 and proposes a new translation that addresses it. A translation of the logos in Ewe cosmic perspective renders the term nyagbe, the intelligible word which dwells with the female pair of Sogbe-Lisa and manifests itself from the absolute state of existence [logo] to the embodied state [logosu]. When nyagbe journeyed from the eternal state of existence to the embodied state of existence, it manifests itself at five different levels of existence until it reaches the final state where humans exist. Although believed to be the epitome of all creation, human beings are at the same time described as being at the shore of ignorance and therefore must continually climb the ladder of knowledge in order to free themselves from it. It is for this reason that humans constantly petition the cosmic forces for their salvation. The article therefore, identifies a soteriological gap created in the Ewe soteriology and concludes that the only soteriological response to the Ewe cosmic cry for deliverance from the state of ignorance is the logos incarnate in John 1:14.Contribution: The article contributes to the academic knowledge on the logos Christology in the prologue of the fourth gospel (John 1:1–5, 14), specifically in the use of mother tongue in biblical hermeneutics in Africa.

From Blind to Blinding: Saturated Phenomena and the Speculative Lyric of the Invisible in Andrew Joron’s Poetry

This essay presents a critical reading of Andrew Joron’s speculative oeuvre from a phenomenological standpoint. Proceeding from the poet’s cosmic perspectives, it focuses on the central issue of language in relation to the emergence of meaning and the world. Through a close reading of both Joron’s poetry and poetics, this essay demonstrates his conceptual affinity with the work of contemporary French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion, arguing that both Joron’s poetry and Marion’s phenomenology of givenness postulate an emergence of meaning and the world that is absolutely unconditioned and unconditional, an emergence characterized by an intuitively blinding richness that saturates the phenomenon over and beyond any limit and, hence, makes the phenomenon invisible.

Paul and the Apocalypse of the Gospel

Apocalyptic thinking permeates Paul’s ideas about the gospel, God, the present age, and what is to come. Paul in his letters not only writes about the revelations that he himself has received (Gal 1:11–12, 2:2), but also how the gospel reveals God’s ultimate justice (Rom 1:17). Apocalypticism as an ideology is fundamentally concerned with justice and the expectation of a future intervention that will conclusively reconcile the injustices of the world with the justice of God. Though of course Paul never sat down and wrote an “Apocalypse” or even an apocalyptic letter, his letters reveal glimpses of the apocalyptic ways Paul thought about the world and humanity’s place in it. This article reviews the history and main tenets of apocalypticism and then examines three fundamental areas of apocalyptic thinking as expressed in Paul’s letters: the idea of apocalypse as full disclosure, the apocalyptic promise of full justice, and Paul’s use of apocalyptic ideas to reorient his readers to thinking about true-but-hidden identity, both of the “present evil age” (Gal 1:4) and of one’s current place in it. Paul draws upon and employs apocalyptic imagery to solve practical problems in his communities, equipping them to face the world with a full cosmic perspective.

Poetry as Spiritual Exercise

Poetry as Spiritual Exercise

Atomic Visitors from Outer Space: The Tunguska Nuclear Hypothesis in Soviet Technological Imagination

In the mid‐1940s an idea arose that a crash of an atomically‐powered alien spaceship had caused the mysterious Tunguska explosion of 1908 in Siberia. Initially expressed as fiction, this speculation evolved into an active hypothesis that inspired decades’ worth of amateur investigations. This article examines the history of the Tunguska nuclear hypothesis and what it reveals about nuclear and technological culture in the USSR. It argues that Soviet technological imagination had a tendency to place the country's developments into a cosmic perspective that drew parallels between contemporary circumstances on Earth and the possible existence of technologies among civilizations elsewhere in the universe. Seeing the country's communist project as part of a cosmic drama involved a form of universalism that aligned with Marxist ideology, but also possessed distinctive influences and afterlives. By concentrating on cosmic analogies at play in Soviet technological imagination about Tunguska, this article also underscores how the suspected link between otherworldly civilizations and earthly actions informed ways of conceptualizing race and ethnicity, the boundaries of scientific knowledge, and the natural environment.

Facing Our Short-Term and Long-Term Problems: Developing Cosmic Perspectives for Sustainable Life

Facing Our Short-Term and Long-Term Problems: Developing Cosmic Perspectives for Sustainable Life

Revelation by Sigve K. Tonstad

Reviewed by: Revelation by Sigve K. Tonstad Thomas B. Slater sigve k. tonstad, Revelation (Paideia; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019). Pp. xvii + 415. Paper $35. Tonstad has written an apologetic, historical, and traditional interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Three issues drive this commentary: (1) ascertaining the nature of violence; (2) understanding the role of imperial Rome; and (3) discerning the nature of John’s Apocalypse as a revelation. He argues that John wrote from a cosmic perspective. Having a cosmic perspective, Revelation focuses on Jesus as a victim of violence (Rev 5:6). “This feature ensures that Jesus is represented just as he is in the other books in the NT” (p. 5). Violence reflects the cosmic battle between God and Satan, not one between Christians and Rome. Reading the book aloud “might put an end to the idea that the God of Revelation has retribution on his mind” (pp. 7–8; quotation from p. 8). Tonstad warns against those who “uncritically assign the calamities . . . to divine agency” (p. 39) as well as “the Left Behind stampede” (p. 7) which embraces violence. This is a sound critique. From a cosmic perspective, the Roman Empire is not the problem. Rather, the book reflects God’s plans for the future of humanity. Focusing on the Roman context risks not perceiving “the theological aspirations of the book” (p. xii). This also means that the OT informs the book more than Rome (see Rev 12:9; 20:2). Readers must possess an outstanding knowledge of the OT background in order to interpret the book correctly. Only a “re-reader” (which T. does not define) can correctly interpret the book (pp. 35–39). With regard to John’s Apocalypse as a revelation, the book comes from God and is not a historical document, again reflecting its cosmic perspective (pp. xii–xiii). It is [End Page 349] apocalyptic with epistolary and prophetic features, but it is not an apocalypse. It defies generic classification. A revelation is “the notion of revealing what another party might wish to hide” (p. 20). Additionally, an apokalypsis is “a disclosure policy to which God is deeply committed” (p. 26). Echoing Richard Bauckham, T. writes that Revelation is the culmination of OT prophecy (pp. 20, 35). Revelation is not crisis literature but reflects a cosmic battle between God and Satan. Unsurprisingly, T. affirms traditional positions with regard to author, date, and language. The apostle John is the author of both the Gospel and the Apocalypse. Both works see Jesus as a revealer and emphasize the need for a faithful witness. Further, T. argues that the Domitianic date is correct: “Nero’s influence was imprinted upon Domitian” (p. 35). The dating also coheres with a “theological priority” and is consistent with Irenaeus’s testimony (p. 35). Furthermore, John knew the rules of Greek grammar but intentionally used classical Hebrew as a model for writing (p. 35). The commentary has an extensive bibliography, makes astute use of photographs in order to make Revelation more relevant, and has many insightful reader-friendly sidebars. Tonstad correctly recognizes that Jesus was a victim of violence, making the book less violent than many perceive. T. also provides insightful comments on the connections between the canonical Protestant OT and Revelation (e.g., the garments made white through the blood of the Lamb [pp. 135–36]; the woman, the baby, and the dragon [pp. 176–79]; the Great Supper [pp. 279–80]; the New Earth [pp. 303–10]). There are, however, some concerns. First, to say that commentators have “uncritically” assigned calamities to God ignores the contributions of G. K. Beale, Brian K. Blount, Steven J. Friesen, Adela Yarbro Collins, Stephen Pattemore, David A. deSilva, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, J. C. Thomas, and Frank D. Macchia, to name a few. In addition, reading the book aloud probably will not change how most people understand it. Social location has much more influence on readers and “re-readers.” Second, the emphasis on the OT almost to the exclusion of Rome is unfortunate, given that one of the goals of the series is to elucidate the cultural context (pp. ix–x). Price, Friesen and many others have shown that Rome cannot be...

“Our Eyes Adjust to the Dark”: The Cosmic Sublime in Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars

The cosmic sublime, as the most spectacular manifestation of the natural sublime, offers rich stimuli for the literary imagination, as well as for various interactions between science, culture and art. In her book of poetry Life on Mars (2011), Tracy K. Smith uses tropes of cosmic perspective, scientific gaze and interplanetary travel to problematize the relationship between human finitude and the boundless unknown of the universe. Written after the death of her father, who was one of the engineers of the Hubble telescope, the volume links personal elegy and the work of mourning with philosophical questions about the relationship between the self and scientifically framed visions of the cosmos. The primary intention of my study is to examine the strategies and implications of the poet’s revisionary engagement with the aesthetics, rhetoric, popular mythology and mysticism of the spatial infinite. Smith employs the cosmic sublime not only as a spatial mode of perception but also as a metaphor of the emotional response to death. Her adaptation of the category expands the frame of reference for the purposes of an existential inquiry into the nature of humanity and transcendence. The celebration of imaginative freedom and modern science’s command of nature is further linked to constant apprehension about the human abuse of power and to anxieties triggered by the sublime mythology of transcendence, informed by a desire for dominating the other to the point of possession.

The Astrobiological Copernican Weak and Strong Limits for Intelligent Life

Abstract We present a cosmic perspective on the search for life and examine the likely number of Communicating Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent (CETI) civilizations in our Galaxy by utilizing the latest astrophysical information. Our calculation involves Galactic star formation histories, metallicity distributions, and the likelihood of stars hosting Earth-like planets in their habitable zones, under specific assumptions which we describe as the Astrobiological Copernican Weak and Strong conditions. These assumptions are based on the one situation in which intelligent, communicative life is known to exist—on our own planet. This type of life has developed in a metal-rich environment and has taken roughly 5 Gyr to do so. We investigate the possible number of CETI civilizations based on different scenarios. At one extreme is the Weak Astrobiological Copernican scenario—such that a planet forms intelligent life sometime after 5 Gyr, but not earlier. The other is the Strong Astrobiological Copernican scenario in which life must form between 4.5 and 5.5 Gyr, as on Earth. In the Strong scenario (under the strictest set of assumptions), we find there should be at least civilizations within our Galaxy: this is a lower limit, based on the assumption that the average lifetime, L, of a communicating civilization is 100 yr (since we know that our own civilization has had radio communications for this time). If spread uniformly throughout the Galaxy this would imply that the nearest CETI is at most lt-yr away and most likely hosted by a low-mass M-dwarf star, likely far surpassing our ability to detect it for the foreseeable future, and making interstellar communication impossible. Furthermore, the likelihood that the host stars for this life are solar-type stars is extremely small and most would have to be M dwarfs, which may not be stable enough to host life over long timescales. We furthermore explore other scenarios and explain the likely number of CETI there are within the Galaxy based on variations of our assumptions.

“Perspectives on and Standards of Life’s Meaningfulness: A Reply to Landau”

In a recent article Iddo Landau has defended his distinction between perspectives on and standards of meaning in life to support his rebuttal of a familiar pessimistic objection to the meaningfulness of human life. According to that complaint, human life is meaningless when viewed from a detached, cosmic, or sub specie aeternitatis [SSA] perspective. Landau argues that a cosmic perspective need not entail a comparably high standard of meaningfulness. What counts on his view then is not the perspective, which is compatible with any number of possible standards for what constitutes an adequate amount of meaningfulness, but the standard that sets that threshold. In this article I argue that Landau has 1.a.) underestimated the severity of the pessimists’ critique of the availability of any standards for meaningfulness and has also 1.b.) misunderstood the pessimists to be saying that human lives are meaningless because they make an insufficient spatio-temporal impact. I argue further that 2.a.) Landau has left unexplained on what basis we would locate the standard of meaning, leaving a gap in his account. Finally, I maintain that 2.b.) by acknowledging that the ontological, normative, or theological content of the SSA perspective can influence the placing of that standard, Landau leaves himself open to the plausible alternative possibility that the meaning of a life is settled not by the standard itself but by the character attributed to the SSA perspective.

Wrestling with Archons: Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture by Jonathan Cahana-Blum

[...]the monastic context of the Nag Hammadi texts has been questioned. There have been suggestions that they belonged to a private owner who was buried with the texts and that the monastic letters in the bindings of the Nag Hammadi codices might have come from a heap of scrap papyri of diverging origins. Cahana-Blum builds on Hans Jonas’s works and concludes that Gnostic ritual was a way to free the Gnostic of the dualism of the cosmic sphere. [...]it gives the Gnostic a view of the conditions that seem to be self-evident cosmic perspectives, but from an acosmic perspective that is open to critique

Expanding worldviews: cosmic perspectives

Ian Crawford summarizes the second of two meetings exploring the relationships between astrobiology, big history and cosmic perspectives.

The Evolution of Earth Federation from a Cosmic Perspective

The Evolution of Earth Federation from a Cosmic Perspective