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What do you know about the year 2012?
Throughout history people have suggested this year will be a major turning point for humanity as a whole.

Who or what might be the cause of this? Can we do anything to predict or change this point in time?

What do you think?
If you follow the parody this site represents then potential competitors are everywhere. Who or what will be the winners and losers in perhaps the biggest game of all time?

Its time for change on earth and that begins with information. Browse the site comment when you feel like it. Spread the word and help begin the revolution…

It’s time for a revolution and we’ve not got long to go!
However it is not all doom and gloom. The point of this site is awareness. Whether you believe something is seriously wrong with the world or not; knowledge is the currency of our time. Read and learn, act, maybe disregard; best of all share. Whichever way approach this site and life with an open mind.

We’ve only just begun to understand a fraction of the infinite possibilities of our existence. Now is the time to look outisde our self created boxes of material items, education and rules.

Do you want a stab at the answer; to the question hanging over all our heads? Then embrace earth2012 and help it grow and change the world for the common good!

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Bohemian Club

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“Weaving spiders come not here”—inscription surrounding an owl on a bronze bas-relief plaque built into the brick wall near the corner of Taylor and Post Streets in San Francisco

The Bohemian Club is a private gentlemen’s club located at 624 Taylor Street, San Francisco, California.[1] Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of journalists, artists and musicians, it soon began to accept businessmen and entrepreneurs as permanent members, as well as offering temporary membership to university presidents and military commanders who were serving in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Today, the club has a diverse membership of many local and global leaders, ranging from artists and musicians to businessmen.

Contents

History

Bohemianism

Main article: Bohemianism

In New York City and other American metropolises in the late 1850s, groups of young, cultured journalists flourished as self-described “bohemians” until the American Civil War broke them up and sent them out as war correspondents.[2] During the war, reporters began to assume the title “bohemian,” and newspapermen in general took up the moniker. “Bohemian” became synonymous with “newspaper writer”.[2] California journalist Bret Harte first wrote as “The Bohemian” in The Golden Era in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings. Harte described San Francisco as a sort of Bohemia of the West.[3] Mark Twain called himself and poet Charles Warren Stoddard bohemians in 1867.[2]

Founding

The Bohemian Club was originally formed in April 1872 by and for journalists who wished to promote a fraternal connection among men who enjoyed the arts. Michael Henry de Young, proprietor of the San Francisco Chronicle, provided this description of its formation in a 1915 interview:

The Bohemian Club was organized in the Chronicle office by Tommy Newcombe, Sutherland, Dan O’Connell, Harry Dam and others who were members of the staff. The boys wanted a place where they could get together after work, and they took a room on Sacramento street below Kearny. That was the start of the Bohemian Club, and it was not an unmixed blessing for the Chronicle because the boys would go there sometimes when they should have reported at the office. Very often when Dan O’Connell sat down to a good dinner there he would forget that he had a pocketful of notes for an important story.[4]

Journalists were to be regular members; artists and musicians were to be honorary members.[5] The group quickly relaxed its rules for membership to permit some people to join who had little artistic talent, but enjoyed the arts and had greater financial resources. Eventually, the original “bohemian” members were in the minority and the wealthy and powerful controlled the club.[6] Club members who were established and successful, respectable family men, defined for themselves their own form of bohemianism which included men who were bons vivants, sometime outdoorsmen, and appreciators of the arts.[3] Club member and poet George Sterling responded to this redefinition:

Any good mixer of convivial habits considers he has a right to be called a Bohemian. But that is not a valid claim. There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism. The first is devotion or addiction to one or more of the Seven Arts; the other is poverty. Other factors suggest themselves: for instance, I like to think of my Bohemians as young, as radical in their outlook on art and life; as unconventional, and, though this is debatable, as dwellers in a city large enough to have the somewhat cruel atmosphere of all great cities.[7]

Despite his purist views, Sterling associated very closely with the Bohemian Club, and caroused with artist and industrialist alike at the Bohemian Grove.[7]

Oscar Wilde, upon visiting the club in 1882, is reported to have said “I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-looking Bohemians in my life.”[8]

Membership

A number of past membership lists are in public domain,[5] but modern club membership lists are private. Some prominent figures have been given honorary membership, such as Richard Nixon and William Randolph Hearst. Members have included some U.S. presidents (usually before they are elected to office), many cabinet officials, and CEOs of large corporations, including major financial institutions. Major military contractors, oil companies, banks (including the Federal Reserve), utilities, and national media have high-ranking officials as club members or guests. Many members are, or have been, on the board of directors of several of these corporations; however, artists and lovers of art are among the most active members. The club’s bylaws require ten percent of the membership be accomplished artists of all types (composers, musicians, singers, actors, lighting artists, painters, authors, etc.). Artistic members are admitted after passing a stringent audition demonstrating their talent.

Bohemian Grove

Main article: Bohemian Grove

The club’s mascot owl cast in masonry perched over the main entrance at 624 Taylor. The owl is flanked by the letters B and C and surrounded by words of the club’s motto

Every year the club hosts a two week long (three weekends) camp at Bohemian Grove, which is notable for its illustrious guest list and its eclectic Cremation of Care ceremony which mockingly burns “Care” (the normal woes of life) with grand pageantry, pyrotechnics and brilliant costumes, all done at the edge of a lake and at the base of a forty-foot ’stone’ owl statue. In addition to that ceremony, there are also two outdoor performances (dramatic and comedic plays), often with elaborate set design and orchestral accompaniment. The more elaborate of the two is the Grove Play, or High Jinks, the more ribald is called Low Jinks.[9] More often than not, the productions are original creations of the Associate members but active participation of hundreds of members of all backgrounds is traditional.[10]

Bret Harte Memorial


The Bret Harte Memorial by Jo Mora

A bronze relief by Jo Mora is installed on the exterior of the building. It serves as a memorial to author and poet Bret Harte. The relief, which is approximately 3 ft. 3 7/8 in. x 7 ft. 11 5/8 in. x 2 1/2 in., was first dedicated in on August 15, 1919, as a tribute by Mora, who was a member, to fellow Bohemian Club member, Harte. The relief shows fifteen characters from books by Harte. It is inscribed:

Proper left, upper corner:

J J MORA
AUGUST 15, 1919

Proper left, lower edge:

L. DE ROME
BRONZE FOUNDRY

Top center wreath:

IN
MEMORIAM
BRET
HARTE
1836-1902
AD

followed by the founder’s mark for L. De Rome. When the original building was torn down, the relief was removed. In 1934 it was reinstalled on the building that stands today.[11]

See also

Portal icon San Francisco Bay Area portal

References

Notes
  1. ^ Kay, Jane (July 6, 2009). “No retreat from uproar over Bohemian Club woods”. San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/06/MNUU18ICIV.DTL. Retrieved 14 July 2009. 
  2. ^ a b c The Mark Twain Project. Explanatory Notes regarding the letter from Samuel Langhorne Clemens to Charles Warren Stoddard, 23 Apr 1867. Retrieved on July 26, 2009.
  3. ^ a b Ogden, Dunbar H.; Douglas McDermott; Robert Károly Sarlós Theatre West: Image and Impact, Rodopi, 1990, pp. 17–42. ISBN 90-5183-125-0
  4. ^ Interview with Michael Henry De Young, 1915, reproduced at http://www.archive.org/stream/variedtypes00odayrich/variedtypes00odayrich_djvu.txt.
  5. ^ a b The Elite directory for San Francisco and Oakland, Argonaut Publishing Co., 1879, pp. 175–184.
  6. ^ Bohemian Club. Constitution, By-laws, and Rules, Officers, Committees, and Members, Bohemian Club, 1904, p. 11. Semi-centennial high jinks in the Grove, 1922, Bohemian Club, 1922, pp. 11–22.
  7. ^ a b Parry, 2005, p. 238.
  8. ^ Finn, Maria (October 9, 2010). “Keeping Reality at Bay”. Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532063842966330.html. 
  9. ^ Garnett, 1908.
  10. ^ Domhoff, 1975.
  11. ^ “Bret Harte Memorial, (sculpture)”. Save Outdoor Sculpture!. Smithsonian American Art Museum. http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!318520~!0#focus. Retrieved 9 May 2012. 
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Aztec

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Aztecs)
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Aztec (disambiguation).

The Aztec Pyramid at St. Cecilia Acatitlan, Mexico State.


Aztec jade mask depicting the god Xipe Totec.


Large ceramic statue of an Aztec Eagle Warrior


Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic Codex Fejérváry-Mayer - the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center.

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. “Aztec” (Nahuatl pronunciation: [astekaʔ]) is the Nahuatl word for “people from Aztlan“,[1] a mythological place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time, and later adopted as the word to define the Mexica people. Often the term “Aztec” refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan (now the location of Mexico City), situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mexica Tenochca or Colhua-Mexica.

Sometimes the term also includes the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan’s two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which controlled what is often known as “the Aztec Empire”. In other contexts, Aztec may refer to all the various city states and their peoples, who shared large parts of their ethnic history and cultural traits with the Mexica, Acolhua and Tepanecs, and who often also used the Nahuatl language as a lingua franca. In this meaning it is possible to talk about an Aztec civilization including all the particular cultural patterns common for most of the peoples inhabiting Central Mexico in the late postclassic period.

From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization: here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as reaching remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. In 1521 Hernán Cortés, along with a large number of Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies, conquered Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztec Triple Alliance under the leadership of Hueyi Tlatoani Moctezuma II. Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, from where they proceeded with the process of colonizing Central America.

Aztec culture and history is primarily known through archaeological evidence found in excavations such as that of the renowned Templo Mayor in Mexico City; from indigenous bark paper codices; from eyewitness accounts by Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Bernal Díaz del Castillo; And especially from 16th and 17th century descriptions of Aztec culture and history written by Spanish clergymen and literate Aztecs in the Spanish or Nahuatl language, such as the famous Florentine Codex compiled by the Franciscan monk Bernardino de Sahagún with the help of indigenous Aztec informants.

Contents

Definitions

Aztec calendar.svg
Aztec civilization
Aztec society
Nahuatl language
Religion · Mythology · Philosophy · Calendars
Human sacrifice · Medicine
Aztec history
Aztlán · Codices · Warfare
Aztec Triple Alliance
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
Fall of Tenochtitlan · La Noche Triste
Montezuma II · Hernán Cortés

Aztec people

When used about ethnic groups the term “Aztec” refers to several Nahuatl speaking peoples of central Mexico in the postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, especially the ethnic group that had a leading role in establishing the hegemonic empire based at Tenochtitlan, the Mexica. Other ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire are the Acolhua and Tepanec ethnic groups and some of the ethnic groups that were incorporated into the empire, and the term is also sometimes used about them. In older usage the term was commonly used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups, as Nahuatl was previously referred to as the “Aztec language”. In recent usage these ethnic groups are rather referred to as the Nahua peoples.[2][3] Linguistically the term “Aztecan” is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages (also sometimes called the yuto-nahuan languages) that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec and Pipil.[4]

To the Aztecs themselves the word “aztec” was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was an umbrella term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking, that claimed heritage from the mythic place of origin, Aztlan. In the Nahuatl language “aztecatl” means “person from Aztlan”. In 1810 Alexander von Humboldt originated the modern usage of “Aztec” as a collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to the Mexica state and the Triple Alliance. In 1843, with the publication of the work of William H. Prescott, it was adopted by most of the world, including 19th century Mexican scholars who saw it as a way to distinguish present-day Mexicans from pre-conquest Mexicans. This usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term “Aztec” is still more common.[5]

Aztec culture

Aztec culture is the culture of the people referred to as Aztecs, but since all ethnic groups of central Mexico in the postclassic period shared most basic cultural traits, many of the basic traits of Aztec culture cannot be said to be exclusive for the Aztecs. For the same reason the notion of “Aztec civilization” is best understood as a particular horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization.

Among the cultural traits that the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan shared with many other cultures of central Mexico are the agricultural basis of maize cultivation, the basic social organization dividing society into classes of noble pipiltin and macehualli commoners, the complex religious beliefs and practices including most of the pantheon (e.g. gods such as Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl), the calendric system of a xiuhpohualli of 365 days intercalated with a tonalpohualli of 260 days. Cultural traits particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the veneration of the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, the construction of twin pyramids, and the ceramic ware known as Aztec I to III.[6]

Aztec empire

The Aztec empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan, which extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period.[7] It originated in 1427 as a triple alliance between the city-states Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan who allied to defeat the Tepanec state of Azcapotzalco, that had previously dominated the Basin of Mexico. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance which was de-facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan.[8] The empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. It was never a true territorial empire controlling a territory by large military garrisons in conquered provinces, but rather controlled its client states primarily by installing friendly rulers in conquered cities, by constructing marriage alliances between the ruling dynasties, and by extending an imperial ideology to its client states.[9] Client states paid tribute to the Aztec emperor, the Huey Tlatoani, in an economic strategy limiting communication and trade between outlying polities making them depend on the imperial center for the acquisition of luxury goods.[10] The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala and spanning from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans. The empire reached its maximal extent in 1519 just prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors led by Cortés who managed to topple the Aztec empire by allying with some of the traditional enemies of the Aztecs, the Nahuatl speaking Tlaxcalteca.

History

Main article: History of the Aztecs

Migrational period

The Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their political influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the complex civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices the foundation for later Aztec culture was laid. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, Hidalgo. In the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico. Around this time the Mexica tribe arrived in central Mexico.

Rise of the Triple Alliance

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2011)

The Valley of Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest.

The true origin of the Mexicas is uncertain. According to their legends, the Mexica tribe place of origin was Aztlán. It is generally thought that Aztlán was somewhere to the north of the Valley of Mexico; some experts have placed it as far north as the Southwestern United States.

Based on these codices as well as other histories, it appears that the Mexicas arrived at Chapultepec in or around the year 1248.[11]

At the time of their arrival, the Valley of Mexico had many city-states, the most powerful of which were Culhuacan to the south and Azcapotzalco to the west. The Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco soon expelled the Mexicas from Chapultepec. In 1299, Culhuacan ruler Cocoxtli gave them permission to settle in the empty barrens of Tizapan, where they were eventually assimilated into Culhuacan culture.

According to Aztec legend, in 1323, the Mexicas were shown a vision of an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, eating a snake.[clarification needed] This vision indicated that this was the location where they were to build their home. In any event, the Mexicas eventually arrived on a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco where they founded the town of Tenochtitlan in 1325.[citation needed] In 1376, the Mexicas elected their first Huey Tlatoani, Acamapichtli, who was living in Texcoco at the time.

For the next 50 years, until 1427, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco, which had become a regional power, perhaps the most powerful since the Toltecs, centuries earlier. Maxtla, son of Tezozomoc, assassinated Chimalpopoca, the Mexica ruler. In an effort to defeat Maxtla, Chimalpopoca’s successor, Itzcoatl, allied with the exiled ruler of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl. This coalition was the foundation of the Aztec Triple Alliance, which defeated Azcapotzalco in 1428.


Jaguar warrior, from the Codex Magliabechiano.

The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific shore. Over this period, Tenochtitlan gradually became the dominant power in the alliance.

Two of the primary architects of the Aztec empire were the half-brothers Tlacaelel and Montezuma I, nephews of Itzcoatl. Moctezuma I succeeded Itzcoatl as Hueyi Tlatoani in 1440. Although he was also offered the opportunity to be tlatoani, Tlacaelel preferred to operate as the power behind the throne. Tlacaelel reformed the Aztec state and religion. According to some sources, he ordered the burning of most of the extant Aztec books claiming that they contained lies. He thereupon rewrote the history of the Aztec people, thus creating a common awareness of history for the Aztecs. This rewriting led directly to the curriculum taught to scholars and promoted the belief that the Aztecs were always a powerful and mythic nation; forgetting forever a possible true history of modest origins. One component of this reform was the institution of ritual war (the flower wars) as a way to have trained warriors, and created the necessity of constant sacrifices to keep the Sun moving.

Spanish conquest

Main article: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2011)

The empire reached its height during Ahuitzotl’s reign in 1486–1502. His successor, Motehcuzōma Xocoyotzin (better known as Moctezuma II or Moctezuma, or Montezuma), had been Hueyi Tlatoani for 17 years when the Spaniards, led by Hernándo Cortés, landed on the Gulf Coast in the spring of 1519.

Despite some early battles between the two, Cortés allied himself with the Aztecs’ long-time enemy, the Confederacy of Tlaxcala, and arrived at the gates of Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519.

The Spaniards and their Tlaxcallan allies became increasingly dangerous and unwelcome guests in the capital city. In June, 1520, hostilities broke out, culminating in the massacre in the Main Temple and the death of Moctezuma II. The Spaniards fled the town on July 1, an episode later characterized as La Noche Triste (the Sad Night). They and their native allies returned in the spring of 1521 to lay siege to Tenochtitlan, a battle that ended on August 13 with the destruction of the city. During this period the now crumbling empire went through a rapid line of ruler succession. After the death of Moctezuma II, the empire fell into the hands of severely weakened emperors, such as Cuitláhuac, before eventually being ruled by puppet rulers, such as Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuh, installed by the Spanish.

Despite the decline of the Aztec empire, most of the Mesoamerican cultures were intact after the fall of Tenochtitlan. Indeed, the freedom from Aztec domination may have been considered a positive development by most of the other cultures. The upper classes of the Aztec empire were considered noblemen by the Spaniards and generally treated as such initially. All this changed rapidly and the native population were soon forbidden to study by law, and had the status of minors[citation needed].

The Tlaxcalans remained loyal to their Spanish friends and were allowed to come on other conquests with Cortés and his men.

Colonial period population decline

Main article: Population history of American indigenous peoples

In 1520–1521, an outbreak of smallpox swept through the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city. It is estimated that between 10% and 50% of the population fell victim to this epidemic.

Subsequently, the Valley of Mexico was hit with two more epidemics, smallpox (1545–1548) and typhus (1576–1581). The Spaniards, to consolidate the diminishing population, merged the survivors from small towns in the Valley of Mexico into bigger ones. This broke the power of the upper classes, but did not dissolve the coherence of the indigenous society in greater Mexico.

The population before the time of the conquest is unknown and hotly contested,[nb 1] but disease is known to have ravaged the region; thus, the indigenous population of the Valley of Mexico is estimated to have declined by more than 80% in the course of about 60 years.[12]

Cultural patterns

See also: Women in Aztec civilization

Government


The maximal extent of the Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire was an example of an empire that ruled by indirect means. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more of a system of tribute than a single system of government. In the theoretical framework of imperial systems posited by Alexander J. Motyl[13] the Aztec empire was an informal or hegemonic empire because it did not exert supreme authority over the conquered lands, it merely expected tributes to be paid. It was also a discontinuous empire because not all dominated territories were connected, for example the southern peripheral zones of Xoconochco were not in direct contact with the center. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire can be seen in the fact that generally local rulers were restored to their positions once their city-state was conquered and the Aztecs did not interfere in local affairs as long as the tribute payments were made.[14]

Although the form of government is often referred to as an empire, in fact most areas within the empire were organized as city-states, known as altepetl in Nahuatl. These were small polities ruled by a king (tlatoani) from a legitimate dynasty. The Early Aztec period was a time of growth and competition among altepetl. Even after the empire was formed (1428) and began its program of expansion through conquest, the altepetl remained the dominant form of organization at the local level. The efficient role of the altepetl as a regional political unit was largely responsible for the success of the empire’s hegemonic form of control.[15]

Tribute and trade


Aztec feather headdress, often described as the crown of Moctezuma II. Its actual owner is unknown, but the feathers must have been brought from tropical rainforest areas far away from the Aztec capital.

Several pages from the Codex Mendoza list tributary towns along with the goods they supplied, which included not only luxuries such as feathers, adorned suits, and greenstone beads, but more practical goods such as cloth, firewood, and food. Tribute was usually paid twice or four times a year at differing times.[16]

Archaeological excavations in the Aztec-ruled provinces show that incorporation into the empire had both costs and benefits for provincial peoples. On the positive side, the empire promoted commerce and trade, and exotic goods from obsidian to bronze managed to reach the houses of both commoners and nobles. Trade partners included the enemy Tarascan, a source of bronze tools and jewelry. On the negative side, imperial tribute imposed a burden on commoner households, who had to increase their work to pay their share of tribute. Nobles, on the other hand, often made out well under imperial rule because of the indirect nature of imperial organization. The empire had to rely on local kings and nobles and offered them privileges for their help in maintaining order and keeping the tribute flowing.[17]

Economy

The Aztec economy can be divided into a political sector, under the control of nobles and kings, and a commercial sector that operated independently of the political sector. The political sector of the economy centered on the control of land and labor by kings and nobles. Nobles owned all land, and commoners got access to farmland and other fields through a variety of arrangements, from rental through sharecropping to serf-like labor and slavery. These payments from commoners to nobles supported both the lavish lifestyles of the high nobility and the finances of city-states. Many luxury goods were produced for consumption by nobles. The producers of featherwork, sculptures, jewelry, and other luxury items were full-time commoner specialists who worked for noble patrons.

In the commercial sector of the economy several types of money were in regular use. Small purchases were made with cacao beans, which had to be imported from lowland areas. In Aztec marketplaces, a small rabbit was worth 30 beans, a turkey egg cost 3 beans, and a tamal cost a single bean. For larger purchases, standardized lengths of cotton cloth called quachtli were used. There were different grades of quachtli, ranging in value from 65 to 300 cacao beans. One source stated that 20 quachtli could support a commoner for one year in Tenochtitlan. A man could also sell his own daughter as a sexual slave or future religious sacrifice, generally for around 500 to 700 beans. A small gold statue (approximately 0.62 kg / 1.37 lb) cost 250 beans. Money was used primarily in the many periodic markets that were held in each town. A typical town would have a weekly market (every 5 days), while larger cities held markets every day. Cortés reported that the central market of Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlan’s sister city, was visited by 60,000 people daily. Some sellers in the markets were petty vendors; farmers might sell some of their produce, potters sold their vessels, and so on. Other vendors were professional merchants who traveled from market to market seeking profits. The pochteca were specialized merchants organized into exclusive guilds. They made long expeditions to all parts of Mesoamerica, and they served as the judges and supervisors of the Tlatelolco market. Although the economy of Aztec Mexico was commercialized (in its use of money, markets, and merchants), it was not “a capitalist economy because land and labor were not commodities for sale.”[18]

Transportation

The main contribution of the Aztec rule was a system of communications between the conquered cities. In Mesoamerica, without draft animals for transport (nor, as a result, wheeled vehicles), the roads were designed for travel on foot. Usually these roads were maintained through tribute, and travelers had places to rest and eat and even latrines to use at regular intervals, roughly every 10 to 15 kilometres (6 to 9 mi). Couriers (paynani) were constantly travelling along those ways, keeping the Aztecs informed of events, and helping to monitor the integrity of the roads.

Mythology and religion

Main articles: Aztec religion and Aztec mythology

The Coat of Arms of Mexico, from Aztec mythology


The Aztec Sun Stone, also known as the Aztec Calendar Stone, at National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.


The Aztec goddess of Coatlicue, mother of earth. National Museum of Anthropology.

The Mexica made reference to at least two manifestations of the supernatural: tēōtl and tēixiptla. Tēōtl, which the Spaniards and European scholars routinely mistranslated as “god” or “demon”, referred rather to an impersonal force that permeated the world. Tēixiptla, by contrast, denoted the physical representations (”idols”, statues and figurines) of the tēōtl as well as the human cultic activity surrounding this physical representation. The Mexica “gods” themselves had no existence as distinct entities apart from these tēixiptla representations of tēōtl.[19]

Veneration of Huitzilopochtli, the personification of the sun and of war, was central to the religious, social and political practices of the Mexicas. Huitzilopochtli attained this central position after the founding of Tenochtitlan and the formation of the Mexica city-state society in the 14th century. Prior to this, Huitzilopochtli was associated primarily with hunting, presumably one of the important subsistence activities of the itinerant bands that would eventually become the Mexica.

According to myth, Huitzilopochtli directed the wanderers to found a city on the site where they would see an eagle devouring a snake perched on a fruit-bearing nopal cactus. (It was said that Huitzilopochtli killed his nephew, Cópil, and threw his heart on the lake. Huitzilopochtli honoured Cópil by causing a cactus to grow over Cópil’s heart.) Legend has it that this is the site on which the Mexicas built their capital city of Tenochtitlan. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of arms of Mexico.

According to their own history, when the Mexicas arrived in the Anahuac valley (Valley of Mexico) around Lake Texcoco, the groups living there considered them uncivilized. The Mexicas borrowed much of their culture from the ancient Toltec whom they seem to have at least partially confused with the more ancient civilization of Teotihuacan. To the Mexicas, the Toltecs were the originators of all culture; “Toltecayōtl” was a synonym for culture. Mexica legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the mythical city of Tollan, which they also identified with the more ancient Teotihuacan.

As all other Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs played a variant of the Mesoamerican ballgame, named tlachtli or ollamaliztli in Nahuatl. The game was played with a ball of solid rubber, called an olli, whence derives the Spanish word for rubber, hule. The players hit the ball with their hips, knees, and elbows and had to pass the ball through a stone ring to automatically win. The practice of the ballgame carried religious and mythological meanings and also served as sport.

Human sacrifice


Human sacrifice as shown in the Codex Magliabechiano

Main article: Human sacrifice in Aztec culture

While human sacrifice was practiced throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, if their own accounts are to be believed, brought this practice to an unprecedented level. For example, for the reconsecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days, reportedly by Ahuitzotl, the Great Speaker himself.

The sheer logistics associated with sacrificing 84,000 victims would be overwhelming, and historians and archaeologists agree that 2,000 is a more likely figure. A similar consensus has developed on reports of cannibalism among the Aztecs.

Accounts by the Tlaxcaltecas, the primary enemy of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest, show that at least some of them considered it an honor to be sacrificed. In one legend, the warrior Tlahuicole was freed by the Aztecs but eventually returned of his own volition to die in ritual sacrifice. Tlaxcala also practiced the human sacrifice of captured Aztec Citizens.

Social structures

Main articles: Aztec society and Aztec slavery

Class structure

Main article: Class in Aztec society

A painting from Codex Mendoza showing elder Aztecs being given intoxicants.

The highest class were the pīpiltin or nobility.[nb 2] Originally this status was not hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Later the class system took on hereditary aspects.

The second class were the mācehualtin, originally peasants. Eduardo Noguera[20] estimates that in later stages only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The other 80% of society were warriors, artisans and traders. Eventually, most of the mācehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city.[21]

Slaves or tlacotin also constituted an important class. Aztecs could become slaves because of debts, as a criminal punishment or as war captives. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. However, upon becoming a slave, all of the slave’s animals and excess money would go to his purchaser. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they had children with or were married to their masters. Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance.

Traveling merchants called pochtecah were a small, but important class as they not only facilitated commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and beyond its borders. They were often employed as spies.

Education

Until the age of fourteen, the mandatory universal[22] education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpōlli. Part of this education involved learning a collection of sayings, called huēhuetlàtolli (”sayings of the old”), that embodied the Aztecs’ ideals.

There were two types of schools: the telpochcalli, for practical and military studies, and the calmecac, for advanced learning in writing, astronomy, statesmanship, theology, and other areas.

Arts


This ornament features a turquoise mosaic on a carved wooden base, with red and white shells used for the mouths. Probably worn across the chest, this ornament measures 20 by 43 cm (8 by 17 in). It was likely created by Mixtec artisans from an Aztec tributary state. 1400–1521, from the British Museum [1].

Song and poetry were highly regarded; there were presentations and poetry contests at most of the Aztec festivals. There were also dramatic presentations that included players, musicians and acrobats.

A remarkable amount of this poetry survives, having been collected during the era of the conquest. In some cases poetry is attributed to individual authors, such as Nezahualcoyotl, tlatoani of Texcoco, and Cuacuauhtzin, Lord of Tepechpan, but whether these attributions reflect actual authorship is a matter of opinion. Miguel León-Portilla, a well-respected Aztec scholar of Mexico, has stated that it is in this poetry where we can find the real thought of the Aztecs, independent of “official” Aztec ideology.[23]

“Poetry” was in xochitl in cuicatl a dual term meaning “the flower and the song” and was divided into different genres. Yaocuicatl was devoted to war and the god(s) of war, Teocuicatl to the gods and creation myths and to adoration of said figures, xochicuicatl to flowers (a symbol of poetry itself and indicative of the highly metaphorical nature of a poetry that often utilized duality to convey multiple layers of meaning). “Prose” was tlahtolli, also with its different categories and divisions (Garganigo et al.).


Turquoise mask. Mixtec-Aztec. 1400–1521.

The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, collected (Tezcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar.[nb 3] Bautista de Pomar was the great-grandson of Netzahualcoyotl. He spoke Nahuatl, but was raised a Christian and wrote in Latin characters. (See also: “Is It You?“, a short poem attributed to Netzahualcoyotl, and “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan“, a short poem contained within the “Anales de Tlatelolco” manuscript.)

City-building and architecture

The capital city of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, now the site of modern-day Mexico City. Built on a series of islets in Lake Texcoco, the city plan was based on a symmetrical layout that was divided into four city sections called campans. The city was interlaced with canals which were useful for transportation.

Tenochtitlan was built according to a fixed plan and centered on the ritual precinct, where the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan rose 50 m (164.04 ft) above the city. Houses were made of wood and loam, roofs were made of reed,[24] although pyramids, temples and palaces were generally made of stone.

Around the island, chinampa beds were used to grow foods as well as, over time, to increase the size of the island. Chinampas, misnamed “floating gardens”, were long raised plant beds set upon the shallow lake bottom. They were a very efficient agricultural system and could provide up to seven crops a year. On the basis of current chinampa yields, it has been estimated that 1 hectare of chinampa would feed 20 individuals and 9,000 hectares of chinampas could feed 180,000.[25]

Anthropologist Eduardo Noguera estimates the population at 200,000 based in the house count and merging the population of Tlatelolco (once an independent city, but later became a suburb of Tenochtitlan). If one includes the surrounding islets and shores surrounding Lake Texcoco, estimates range from 300,000 to 700,000 inhabitants.[25]

Agriculture

The pre-conquest Aztecs were a society that had four main methods of agriculture. The earliest, most basic form of agriculture implemented by the Aztecs is known as “rainfall cultivation.” The Aztecs also implemented terrace agriculture in hilly areas, or areas that could not be used for level ground farming. In the valleys irrigation farming was used. Dams diverted water from natural springs to the fields. This allowed for harvests on a regular basis. The Aztecs built canal systems that were longer and much more elaborate than previous irrigation systems. They managed to divert a large portion of the Cuauhtitlan River to provide irrigation to large areas of fields. The network of canals was a very complex and intricate system.

In the swampy regions along Lake Xochimilco, the Aztecs implemented yet another method of crop cultivation. They built what are called chinampas. Chinampas are areas of raised land, created from alternating layers of mud from the bottom of the lake, and plant matter/other vegetation. These “raised beds” were separated by narrow canals, which allowed farmers to move between them by canoe. The chinampas were extremely fertile pieces of land, and yielded, on average, seven crops annually. In order to plant on them, farmers first created “seedbeds,” or reed rafts, where they planted seeds and allowed them to germinate. Once they had, they were re-planted in the chinampas. This cut the growing time down considerably.

The Aztecs are credited with domestication of the subspecies of wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, which is native to this region.[26]

While most of the farming occurred outside the densely populated areas, within the cities there was another method of (small scale) farming. Each family had their own garden plot where they grew maize, fruits, herbs, medicines and other important plants.

Of the various crops grown by the Aztecs, maize was the most important. Aztec diets centered on it. Maize was grown across the entire empire, in the highland terraces, valley farms and also on the chinampas. Women ground maize into a coarse meal by rubbing it with a grinding stone called a manos against a flat stone called a metate. The Aztecs made tortillas from the corn meal. Other crops that the Aztecs relied upon were avocados, beans, squashes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chia, amaranth and chilies. These crops were also grown everywhere. Crops that were specific to the lowland regions were cotton, fruits, cacao beans and rubber trees.

Relationship to other Mesoamerican cultures

Aztecs admired Mixtec craftsmanship so much that they imported artisans to Tenochtitlan and requested work to be done in certain Mixtec styles. The Aztecs also admired the Mixtec codices, so some of them were made to order by Mixteca for the Aztecs. In the later days, high society Aztec women started to wear Mixtec clothing, specifically the quexquemetl. It was worn over their traditional huipil, and much coveted by the women who could not afford such imported goods.

The situation was analogous in many ways to the Phoenician culture which imported and duplicated art from other cultures that they encountered.

Archaeologists usually do not have a problem differentiating between Mixtec and Aztec artifacts. However, the Mixtec made some products for “export” and that makes classification more problematic. In addition, the production of craft was an important part of the Mexica economy, and they also made pieces for “export”.

Legacy

Most modern day Mexicans (and people of Mexican descent in other countries) are mestizos, of mixed indigenous and European ancestry. During the 16th century the racial composition of Mexico began to change from one that featured distinct indigenous (Mexicas and members of the many other Mexican indigenous groups) and immigrant (mostly Spanish) populations, to the population composed primarily of mestizos that is found in modern day Mexico.

The Nahuatl language is today spoken by 1.5 million people, mostly in mountainous areas in the states of central Mexico. Local dialects of Spanish, Mexican Spanish generally, and the Spanish language worldwide have all been influenced, in varying degrees, by Nahuatl. Some Nahuatl words (most notably chocolate and tomato) have been borrowed through Spanish into other languages around the world.

Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, making it one of the oldest living cities of the Americas. Many of its districts and natural landmarks retain their original Nahuatl names. Many other cities and towns in Mexico and Central America have also retained their Nahuatl names (whether or not they were originally Mexica or even Nahuatl-speaking towns). A number of town names are hybrids of Nahuatl and Spanish.

Mexican cuisine continues to be based on and flavored by agricultural products contributed by the Mexicas/Aztecs and Mesoamerica, most of which retain some form of their original Nahuatl names. The cuisine has also become a popular part of the cuisine of the United States and other countries around the world, typically altered to suit various national tastes.

The modern Mexican flag bears the emblem of the Mexica migration story.

Historiography

Before the development of archaeology in Mexico in the 19th century, the historians mainly interpreted the ancient written sources to reconstitute Aztec history. Archaeology allowed to reconsider and criticize some of those interpretations and contradictions between the primary sources. Now, the scholar study of aztec civilization is most often based on scientific and multidisciplinary methodologies.


A painting of Tlaloc, as shown on page 20R of Codex Rios

Aztec codices

There are few extant Aztec codices created before the conquest and these are largely ritual texts. Post-conquest codices, like Codex Mendoza or Codex Ríos, were painted by Aztec tlacuilos (codex creators), but under the control of Spanish authorities. The possibility of Spanish influence poses potential problems for those studying the post-conquest codices. Itzcoatl had the oldest hieroglyphics destroyed for political-religious reasons and Bishop Zumarraga of Mexico (1528–48) had all available texts burned for missionary reasons.[27]

The conquistadors

The accounts of the conquistadors are those of men confronted with a new civilization, which they tried to interpret according to their own culture. Cortés was the most educated, and his letters to Charles V are a valuable firsthand account. Unfortunately, one of his letters is lost and replaced by a posterior text and the others were censored prior to their publication. In any case, Cortés was not writing a dispassionate account, but letters justifying his actions and to some extent exaggerating his successes and downplaying his failures.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo accompanied Cortes, and he later wrote a book named: The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico.[nb 4] In his book, Capitan Bernal Díaz del Castillo provides his account of the Conquest of Mexico, in which he describes the events leading up to the conquest of Mexico including accounts of the human sacrifices and cannibalism that he witnessed first hand. Bernal Díaz wrote several decades after the fact, he never learned the native languages, and he did not take notes. His account is colorful, but his work is considered erratic and exaggerated by historians.[citation needed]

Although Francisco López de Gómara was Cortes’ chaplain, friend, and confidant, he never visited the New World so his account is based on hearsay.

Priests and scholars

The accounts of the first priests and scholars, while reflecting their faith and their culture, are important sources. Fathers Diego Durán, Motolinia, and Mendieta wrote with their own religion in mind, Father Duran wrote trying to prove that the Aztec were one of the lost tribes of Israel. Bartolomé de las Casas wrote apologetically about the Indians, accusing the Spanish conquistadors of committing unspeakable atrocities in their subjugation of the Aztecs and other indigenous groups. Some authors tried to make a synthesis of the pre-Hispanic cultures, like “Oviedo y Herrera”, Jose de Acosta, and Pedro Mártir de Anghiera.[clarification needed]

The most significant source about the Aztec are doubtless the manuscripts of Bernardino de Sahagún, who worked with the surviving Aztec wise men. He taught Aztec tlacuilos to write the original Nahuatl accounts using the Latin alphabet. Because of fear of the Spanish authorities, he maintained the anonymity of his informants, and wrote a heavily censored version in Spanish. Unfortunately the Nahuatl original was not fully translated until the 20th century, thus realising the extent of the censorship of the Spanish version. The original Nahuatl manuscript is known as the Florentine Codex.

Native authors

Other important sources are the work of native and mestizo authors, descendants of the upper classes. These authors include Don Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc, Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, Juan Bautista de Pomar, and Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl. Ixtlixochitl, for example, wrote a history of Texcoco from a Christian point of view. His account of Netzahualcoyotl, an ancestor of Ixtlilxochitl’s, has a strong resemblance to the story of King Solomon and portrays Netzahualcoyotl as a monotheist and a critic of human sacrifice.

Diego Muñoz Camargo (1521 – c. 1612), a Tlaxcalan mestizo, wrote the History of Tlaxcala six decades after the Spanish conquest. Some parts of his work have a strong Tlaxcala bias.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ By one series of estimates, the population before the time of the conquest is estimated at 19 million; by 1550, the estimated population was 4 million and by 1581 less than two million[citation needed]
  2. ^ singular form pilli
  3. ^ This volume was later translated into Spanish by Ángel María Garibay K., teacher of León-Portilla, and it exists in English translation by John Bierhorst
  4. ^ Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España, Escrita por el Capitan Bernal Diaz del Castillo, uno de sus conquistadores — Published in the Spanish language by Fernandez, Editores S.A. Mexico City, (Published in the English language by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy in 1956 Library of Congress Catalog Number 56-5758)

Footnotes

  1. ^ etymonline.com: Aztec
  2. ^ Lockhart 1992[page needed]
  3. ^ Smith 1997, p. 2
  4. ^ Campbell 1997[Full citation needed]
  5. ^ Miguel Leon Portilla (2000). “Aztecas, disquisiciones sobre un gentilicio”. Estudios de la cultura nahuatl. p. 6. 
  6. ^ Smith 1997, pp. 4–7
  7. ^ Smith 2001, pp. 250–252
  8. ^ Smith 1997, pp. 49–58
  9. ^ Smith 1997, pp. 174–175
  10. ^ Smith 1997, pp. 176–182
  11. ^ Smith 1984, p. 173
  12. ^ Silent Killers of the New World
  13. ^ Motyl, Alexander J. (2001). Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 13, 19–21, 32–36. ISBN 0-231-12110-5. 
  14. ^ Berdan, et al. (1996), Aztec Imperial Strategies. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC[page needed]
  15. ^ Smith, Michael E. (2000), Aztec City-States. In A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures, edited by Mogens Herman Hansen, pp. 581–595. The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen.
  16. ^ The Codex Mendoza, edited by F. Berdan and P. Anawalt, University of California Press, 1992
  17. ^ Smith, Life in the Provinces of the Aztec empire, Scientific American, September 1997
  18. ^ (Smith, The Aztecs, 2nd edition, chapter 5)
  19. ^ Boone, 1989
  20. ^ Annals of Anthropology, UNAM, Vol. xi, 1974, p. 56
  21. ^ Sanders, William T., Settlement Patterns in Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians, 1971, vol. 3, p. 3–44.
  22. ^ http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-inventions.html
  23. ^ León-Portilla, Broken Spears.[page needed]
  24. ^ “Azteken”. Winkler Prins encyclopedia (8th ed. ed.). 1975. 
  25. ^ a b Eduardo Noguera (1974). “Sitios de Ocupacion de la periferia de Tenochtitlan”. Anales de Antropologia,UNAM (XI ed. ed.). 
  26. ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2008. Wild turkey: Meleagris gallopavo, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg
  27. ^ Holtker, George,” Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol 1/5, “The Religions of Mexico and Peru”, Catholic Truth Society.

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León-Portilla, Miguel (2002). Bernardino de Sahagun, First Anthropologist. Mauricio J. Mixco (trans.) (Originally published as Bernardino de Sahagún: Pionero de la Antropología ©1999, UNAM. ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3364-3. OCLC 47990042. 
Lockhart, James (1991). Nahuas and Spaniards: Postconquest Mexican History and Philology. UCLA Latin American studies vol. 76, Nahuatl studies series no. 3. Stanford and Los Angeles, CA: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications. ISBN 0-8047-1953-5. OCLC 23286637. 
Lockhart, James (1992). The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1927-6. OCLC 24283718. 
Lockhart, James; ed. and trans. (1993). We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico. Repertorium Columbianum, vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07875-6. OCLC 24703159.  (English) (Spanish) (Nahuatl)
López Austin, Alfredo (1997). Tamoanchan, Tlalocan: Places of Mist. Mesoamerican Worlds series. translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano. Niwot: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-445-1. OCLC 36178551. 
López Luján, Leonardo (2005) The Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. Revised ed. Translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. ISBN 0-8263-2958-6.
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo (1988). The Great Temple of the Aztecs: Treasures of Tenochtitlan. New Aspects of Antiquity series. Doris Heyden (trans.). New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-39024-X. OCLC 17968786. 
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo (1988) The Great Temple of the Aztecs. Thames and Hudson, New York. ISBN 0-500-39024-X.
Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317. 
Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. (June 1983). “Counting Skulls: Comment on the Aztec Cannibalism Theory of Harner-Harris”. American Anthropologist (Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association) 85 (2): pp.403–406. doi:10.1525/aa.1983.85.2.02a00130. ISSN 0002-7294. OCLC 1479294. 
Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. (1990). Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-1562-9. OCLC 20798977. 
Prescott, William H. (1843) (online reproduction, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library). History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a Preliminary View of Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortes. New York: Harper and Brothers. OCLC 2458166. http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PreConq.html. 
Restall, Matthew (2004). Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (1st pbk edition ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517611-1. OCLC 56695639. 
Ruiz de Alarcón, Hernando (1984) [1629]. Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions and Customs That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain, 1629. Civilization of the American Indian series, no. 164. translated & edited by J. Richard Andrews and Ross Hassig (original reproduction and translation of: Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que oy viven entre los indios naturales desta Nueva España, first English ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1832-6. OCLC 10046127.  (Nahuatl) (English)
Sahagún, Bernardino de (1950–82) [ca. 1540–85]. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, 13 vols. in 12. vols. I-XII. Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J.O. Anderson (eds., trans., notes and illus.) (translation of Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España ed.). Santa Fe, NM and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah Press. ISBN 0-87480-082-X. OCLC 276351. 
Sahagún, Bernardino de (1997) [ca.1558–61]. Primeros Memoriales. Civilization of the American Indians series vol. 200, part 2. Thelma D. Sullivan (English trans. and paleography of Nahuatl text), with H.B. Nicholson, Arthur J.O. Anderson, Charles E. Dibble, Eloise Quiñones Keber, and Wayne Ruwet (completion, revisions, and ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2909-9. OCLC 35848992. 
Schroeder, Susan (1991). Chimalpahin and the Kingdoms of Chalco. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-1182-9. OCLC 21976206. 
Smith, Michael E. (1984). “The Aztlan Migrations of Nahuatl Chronicles: Myth or History?” (PDF online facsimile). Ethnohistory (Columbus, OH: American Society for Ethnohistory) 31 (3): pp.153–186. doi:10.2307/482619. ISSN 0014-1801. OCLC 145142543. http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/1-CompleteSet/MES-84-Aztlan.pdf. 
Smith, Michael E. (1997). The Aztecs (first ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23015-7. OCLC 48579073. 
Smith, Michael E. (May 2005). “City Size in Late Post-Classic Mesoamerica” (PDF). Journal of Urban History (Beverley Hills, CA: SAGE Publications) 31 (4): pp.403–434. doi:10.1177/0096144204274396. ISSN 0096-1442. OCLC 1798556. http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Emesmith9/1-CompleteSet/MES-05-CitySize.pdf. 
Smith, Michael E. and [1] (2001). “The Archaeological Study of Empires and Imperialism in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20: 245–284. doi:10.1006/jaar.2000.0372. 
Smith, Michael E, “Life in the Provinces of the Aztec Empire”, Scientific American.PDF (538 KiB)
Soustelle, Jacques (1961). Daily Life of the Aztecs:On the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. Patrick O’Brian (Trans.). London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-508-7. OCLC 50217224. 
Taube, Karl A. (1993). Aztec and Maya Myths (4th University of Texas printing ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-78130-X. OCLC 29124568. 
Townsend, Richard F. (2000). The Aztecs (2nd edition, revised ed.). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28132-7. OCLC 43337963. 
Zantwijk,Rudolph van (1985). The Aztec Arrangement: The Social History of Pre-Spanish Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1677-3. OCLC 11261299. 
Primary sources, available in English
Berdan, Frances F. and Patricia Reiff Anawalt (1997) The Essential Codex Mendoza. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-20454-9.
Cortés, Hernan (1987) Letters from Mexico. New Ed. edition. Translated by Anthony Pagden. Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN 0-300-03724-4.
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal (1963) The Conquest of New Spain. Translated by J. M. Cohen. Penguin, New York. ISBN 0-14-044123-9.
Díaz, Gisele and Alan Rogers (1993) The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript. Dover Publications, New York. ISBN 0-486-27569-8.
Durán, Fray Diego (1971) Book of the Gods and Rites and The Ancient Calendar. Translated by Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. ASIN B000M4OVSG. ISBN 0-8061-1201-8 (1977 Ed. edition).
Durán, Fray Diego (1994) The History of the Indies of New Spain. Translated by Doris Heyden. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. ISBN 0-8061-2649-3.
Garganigo et al., (2008) Huellas de las Literaturas Hispanoamerica. 3 edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey. (Note, this source in Spanish). ISBN 0-13-195846-1.
Zorita, Alonso de (1963) Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain. Translated by Benjamin Keen. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick. ASIN B000INWUNE. ISBN 0-8061-2679-5 (1994 paperback).

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Aztecs.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aztec


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Astrology

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Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world. In the West, astrology most often consists of a system of horoscopes that claim to predict aspects of an individual’s personality or life history based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary objects at the time of their birth. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, and Mayans developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations.

Among Indo-European peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium BCE, with roots in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.[1] Through most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and its concepts were built into other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.[2] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy (such as heliocentrism) began to damage the credibility of astrology, and subsequent controlled studies failed to confirm its predictive value. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing. Astrology saw a popular revival in the 19th and 20th centuries as part of a general revival of spiritualism and later New Age philosophy, and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.[3]

While astrology may bear a superficial resemblance to science, it is a pseudoscience because it makes little attempt to develop solutions to its problems, shows no concern for the evaluation of competing theories, and is selective in considering confirmations and dis-confirmations.[4][5]

Contents

Etymology


Marcantonio Raimondi engraving: 15th cent.

The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia,[6] deriving from the Greek noun ἀστρολογία, ‘account of the stars’. Astrologia later passed into meaning ’star-divination’ with astronomia used for the scientific term.[7]

Historically, the word star has had a loose definition, by which it can refer to planets or any luminous celestial object.[8] The notion of it signifying all heavenly bodies is evident in early Babylonian astrology where cuneiform depictions for the determinative MUL (star) present a symbol of stars alongside planetary and other stellar references to indicate deified objects which reside in the heavens.[a] The word planet (based on the Greek verb πλανάω planaō ‘to wander/stray’), was introduced by the Greeks as a reference to how seven notable ’stars’ were seen to ‘wander’ through others which remained static in their relationship to each other, with the distinction noted by the terms ἀστέρες ἀπλανεῖς asteres aplaneis ‘fixed stars’, and ἀστέρες πλανῆται asteres planetai, ‘wandering stars’.[9] Initially, texts such as Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos referred to the planets as ‘the star of Saturn’, ‘the star of Jupiter’, etc., rather than simply ‘Saturn’ or ‘Jupiter’,[10] but the names became simplified as the word planet assumed astronomical formality over time.[11]

The seven Classical planets therefore comprise the Sun and Moon along with the solar-system planets that are visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This remained the standard definition of the word ‘planet’ until the discovery of Uranus in 1781 created a need for revision.[12] Although the modern IAU definition of planet does not include the Sun and the Moon, astrology retains historical convention in its description of those astronomical bodies, and also generally maintains reference to Pluto as being an astrological planet.[b]

Core principles


Robert Fludd’s 16th century illustration of man the microcosm within the universal macrocosm

A central principle of astrology is integration within the cosmos.[13] The individual, Earth, and its environment are viewed as a single organism, all parts of which are correlated with each other.[14] Cycles of change that are observed in the heavens are therefore said to be reflective (not causative) of similar cycles of change observed on earth and within the individual.[15] This relationship is expressed in the Hermetic maxim “as above, so below; as below, so above”, which postulates symmetry between the individual as a microcosm and the celestial environment as a macrocosm.[16] Accordingly, the natal horoscope depicts a stylized map of the universe at the time of birth, specifically focussed on the individual at its centre, with the Sun, Moon, and celestial bodies considered to be that individual’s personal planets or stars, which are uniquely relevant to that individual alone.[17]

At the heart of astrology is the metaphysical principle that mathematical relationships express qualities or ‘tones’ of energy which manifest in numbers, visual angles, shapes and sounds – all connected within a pattern of proportion. Pythagoras first identified that the pitch of a musical note is in proportion to the length of the string that produces it, and that intervals between harmonious sound frequencies form simple numerical ratios.[18] In a theory known as the Harmony of the Spheres, Pythagoras proposed that the Sun, Moon and planets all emit their own unique hum based on their orbital revolution,[19] and that the quality of life on Earth reflects the tenor of celestial sounds which are physically imperceptible to the human ear.[20] Subsequently, Plato described astronomy and music as “twinned” studies of sensual recognition: astronomy for the eyes, music for the ears, and both requiring knowledge of numerical proportions.[21]


William Blake’s characterisation of Isaac Newton working with the principle of Divine Proportion

Later philosophers retained the close association between astronomy, optics, music and astrology, including Ptolemy, who wrote influential texts on all these topics.[22] Alkindi, in the 9th century, developed Ptolemy’s ideas in De Aspectibus which explores many points of relevance to astrology and the use of planetary aspects.[23] In the 17th century, Kepler, also influenced by arguments in Ptolemy’s Optics and Harmonica,[24] compiled his Harmonices Mundi (’Harmony of the World’), which presented his own analysis of optical perceptions, geometrical shapes, musical consonances and planetary harmonies. Kepler regarded this text as the most important work of his career, and the fifth part, concerning the role of planetary harmony in Creation, the crown of it.[25] His premise was that, as an integral part of Universal Law, mathematical harmony is the key that binds all parts together: one theoretical proposition from his work introduced the minor planetary aspects into astrology; another introduced Kepler’s third law of planetary motion into astronomy.[26]

Another core principle is exemplified in an astrological maxim used by Francis Bacon in the 17th century: “The last rule (which has always been held by the wiser astrologers) is that there is no fatal necessity in the stars; but that they rather incline than compel”.[27] Bacon advocated an emphasis on what he called “sane astrology” based on the study of subtle influences that “lie concealed in the depths of Physic”.[28] His arguments reflect how astrology has always involved consideration of the psyche,[13] a more recent expression of which can be found in the writings of Carl Jung and the development of modern psychological astrology.

World traditions

Although most cultural systems of astrology share common roots in ancient philosophies that influenced each other, many have unique methodologies which differ from those developed in the west. The most significant are Hindu astrology (also known as “Indian astrology” and in modern times referred to as “Vedic astrology”) and Chinese astrology. Both have yielded great influence upon the world’s cultural history.

Western astrology

For more details on this topic, see Western astrology.

Western astrology is largely horoscopic, that is, it is a form of divination based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment, such as a person’s birth.[29] It is founded on the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon, planets, which are analyzed by their aspects (angles) relative to one another. These are usually considered by their placement in houses (spatial divisions of the sky), and their movement through signs of the zodiac (spatial divisions of the ecliptic). Astrology’s modern representation in western popular media is often reduced to sun sign astrology, which considers only basic relationships of planets to the zodiac sign of the Sun at an individual’s date of birth. The full analysis of the birth chart, as performed by an astrological practitioner, involves much more detailed consideration than this.


Page from an Astrological Treatise, ca. 1750

Indian and South/West Asian astrology

For more details on this topic, see Hindu astrology.

Indian astrology uses a different commencement point to its 12-fold division of the zodiac than Western astrology but retains the same names and meanings for the signs and shares many of the same traditional principles. The two methods differ mainly in their focus on sidereal and tropical astrology. Hindu astrology relies on the sidereal zodiac in which the signs of the zodiac are aligned to the position of the corresponding constellations in the sky. In order to maintain this alignment, Hindu astrology uses an adjustment, called ayanamsa, to take into account the gradual precession of the vernal equinox (the gradual shift in the orientation of the Earth’s axis of rotation). Western astrology does not make this adjustment. Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, which is aligned to the points where the Sun’s position on the ecliptic creates the change of seasons.[30] The two systems differ on the point where they start the astrological year by about 23 degrees. In both systems, the astrological year starts with the spring or vernal equinox. However, in Hindu astrology the equinox occurs when the Sun is 6 degrees in Pisces. Western astrology places the equinox at the beginning of Aries, about 23 degrees after the equinox in the Hindu system.[31] Hindu astrology also includes several sub-systems of zodiac division, and employs the notion of bandhu: connections that, according to the Vedas link the outer and the inner worlds. This principle is similar to that found in Western and Chinese astrology, in considering the connection between the macrocosm and microcosm.

In India, there is a long-established and widespread belief in astrology. It is commonly used for daily life, particularly in matters concerning marriage and career, and makes extensive use of electional, horary and karmic astrology.[32][33] It remains considered a branch of Vedic science.[34][35] In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology[36] resulting in vedic astrology being introduced into the curriculum of Indian universities.[37] In February 2011, the Bombay High Court reaffirmed astrology’s standing in India when it dismissed a case which had challenged it status as a science.[38]

The astrology commonly used in Sri Lanka is largely based on Hindu astrology with some modifications to bring it in line with Buddhist teachings. Tibetan astrology also shares many of these components but has also been strongly influenced by Chinese culture and acknowledges a circle of animal signs similar to that of the Chinese zodiac (see below).

Chinese and East-Asian astrology

For more details on this topic, see Chinese astrology and Chinese zodiac.

Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the three harmony, heaven, earth and man) and uses the principles of yin and yang and concepts that are not found in Western astrology, such as the wu xing teachings, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 Earthly Branches, and shichen (時辰 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes).

The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) and flourished during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD), during which all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture - the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the 5 elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality - were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology and alchemy.[39]

The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly confined to political astrology, the observation of unusual phenomena, identification of portents and the selection of auspicious days for events and decisions.[40] The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided into Three Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), and Twenty-eight Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci (十二次).[41] The Three Enclosures occupy the area close to the North Celestial Pole, where the stars are visible to northern hemisphere observers all year around. The Twenty-eight Mansions occupy the zodiacal band and find their equivalent in the 28 Lunar mansions of western astrology and the Nakshatra of Indian astrology. Though marked along the zodiac they are defined by the movement of the Moon in a lunar month rather than the Sun in a solar year. The Zhou Bi Suan Jing is an important astronomical text, dating from the Zhou dynasty but completed in the Han dynasty. It presents a complex lunisolar calendar whose focus reflects a long-standing division between mathematical astronomy “li fa” and portent astrology “tian wen”.[42]

The zodiac of twelve animal signs is said to represent twelve different types of personality. This is not derived from divisions of the ecliptic as in Western astrology, but represents annual rather than monthly themes, being based on cycles of years, lunar months, and two-hour periods of the day (the shichen). The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animals signs: the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.[43] A complex system of predicting fate and destiny based on one’s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, known as Zi Wei Dou Shu (simplified Chinese: 紫微斗数; traditional Chinese: 紫微斗數; pinyin: zǐwēidǒushù) is also still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology.

The Korean zodiac is identical to the Chinese one. The Vietnamese zodiac is almost identical to Chinese zodiac except that the second animal is the Water Buffalo instead of the Ox, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the Rabbit. The Japanese zodiac includes the Wild Boar instead of the Pig. The Thai zodiac includes a Naga in place of the Dragon and begins, not at Chinese New Year, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar calendar, or during the Songkran festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use.[44]

History

Main article: History of astrology

Ancient world

For more details on ancient astrology, see Babylonian astrology and Hellenistic astrology.

Astrology, before its differentiation from astronomy, began when humans started to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles.[45] Early evidence of this appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago. These were the first steps towards recording the Moon’s influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organizing a communal calendar.[46] Agricultural needs were also met by increasing knowledge of constellations, whose appearances change with the seasons, allowing the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities.[47] By the third millennium BCE, widespread civilizations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and are believed to have consciously oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal risings of the stars.[48]

There is scattered evidence to suggest that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made during this period. Two, from the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (compiled in Babylon round 1700 BCE) are reported to have been made during the reign of king Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BCE).[49] Another, showing an early use of electional astrology, is ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (ca. 2144-2124 BCE). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favorable for the planned construction of a temple.[50] However, there is controversy about whether they were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950-1651 BCE).

Medieval Islamic world

For more details on this topic, see Astrology in medieval Islam.
Image of a Latin astrological text

Latin translation of Abū Maʿshar’s De Magnis Coniunctionibus (‘Of the great conjunctions’), Venice, 1515.

Astrology was taken up enthusiastically by Islamic scholars following the collapse of Alexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th. The second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754-775) founded the city of Baghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as Bayt al-Hikma ‘Storehouse of Wisdom’, which continued to receive development from his heirs and was to provide a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts.[51] The early translators included Mashallah, who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad,[52] and Sahl ibn Bishr, (a.k.a. Zael), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as Guido Bonatti in the 13th century, and William Lilly in the 17th century.[53] Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of the 12th century, the effect of which was to help initiate the European Renaissance.

Other important Arabic astrologers include Albumasur and Al Khwarizmi, the Persian mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, who is considered the father of algebra and the algorithm. The Arabs greatly increased the knowledge of astronomical cycles, and many of the star names that remain in common use today, such as Aldebaran, Altair, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Vega retain the legacy of their language.

20th and 21st century

Early in the 20th century, Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, developed sophisticated theories concerning astrology.[54] These included concepts such as archetypes, the collective unconscious[55] and with the collaboration of pioneer theoretical physicist (and Nobel laureate), Wolfgang Pauli, synchronicity.[56] Astrologers like Dane Rudhyar[57] pursued a similar path to Jung and others such as Liz Greene[58][59] and Stephen Arroyo[60] were influenced by the Jungian model leading to the development of psychological astrology.[61]

In the middle of the 20th century, Alfred Witte and, following him, Reinhold Ebertin pioneered the use of midpoints, called midpoint astrology in horoscopic analysis.[62] A new kind of locational astrology began in 1957–58, when Donald Bradley published a hand-plotted geographic astrology map. In the 1970s, American astrologer Jim Lewis developed this technique under the name of Astro*Carto*Graphy.[63] The world map displays lines where the Sun, Moon, planets and other celestial points appear to be on any of the Four Angles (Rising, Setting, MC and IC) at a given moment in time. By comparing these lines with the horoscope, an astrologer attempts to identify the potential in any location.[64]

Effect on European culture

For more details on this topic, see Cultural influence of astrology.

Aquarius: one of the twelve zodiac signs on the church of Saint-Austremonius, Auvergne, France.

Belief in astrology holds firm today in many parts of the world: in one poll, 31% of Americans expressed belief in astrology and according to another study 39% considered it scientific.[65] According to Gallup opinion polls, around 25% of adults in the UK and US accept that astrology or the position of the stars and planets affect people’s lives, whilst other sources report the figure to be much higher.[66]

Along with tarot divination, astrology is one of the core studies of Western esotericism, and as such has influenced systems of magical belief not only among Western esotericists and Hermeticists, but also belief systems such as Wicca that have borrowed from or been influenced by the Western esoteric tradition. Tanya Luhrmann has observed that “all magicians know something about astrology,” and refers to a table of correspondences in Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance, organized by planet, as an example of the astrological lore studied by magicians.[67]

Astrology has had an influence on both language and literature. For example, influenza, from medieval Latin influentia ‘influence’, was so named because doctors once believed epidemics to be caused by unfavourable celestial influences.[68] The word disaster comes from the Greek δυσαστρία, disastria, derived from the negative prefix δυσ-, dis- and αστήρ, aster ’star’, meaning not-starred or badly-starred.[69] The adjectives lunatic (Luna/Moon), mercurial (Mercury), venereal (Venus), martial (Mars), jovial (Jupiter/Jove), and saturnine (Saturn) are all used to describe personal qualities thought to be influenced by the astrological characteristics of predominating personal planets.

In literature many writers, such as Chaucer and Shakespeare, used astrological symbolism in description of their characters’ motivations.[70] More recently, Michael Ward has proposed that C.S. Lewis imbued his Chronicles of Narnia with the characteristics and symbols of the seven planets that govern the heavens in medieval astrology.[71] In 1978, notes from Margaret Mitchell’s library revealed that she had based each character from her classic prize-winning novel, Gone with the Wind (1936), including the central star-crossed lovers, Scarlett (Aries) and Rhett (Leo), around an archetype of the zodiac.[72] In 2010, a detailed personal horoscope analyzed and illustrated by J.K. Rowling at the time she was writing her first Harry Potter novel, came up for sale. The auctioneer commented that Rowling “displays a detailed knowledge of Western astrology which was later to play an important part in her books”.[73]

In music the best known example of astrology’s influence is in the orchestral suite The Planets by British composer Gustav Holst, the framework of which is based on the astrological tones and signatures of the planets.[74]

In politics, in 1981, after John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, first lady Nancy Reagan commissioned astrologer Joan Quigley to act as the secret White House astrologer. However, Quigley’s role ended in 1988 when it became public through the memoirs of former chief of staff, Donald Regan.[75][76][77]

Modern scientific appraisal

Contemporary science considers astrology a pseudoscience.[78] Criticisms include that astrology is conjectural and supplies no hypotheses, proves difficult to falsify, and describes natural events in terms of scientifically untestable supernatural causes.[79][not in citation given] It has also been suggested that much of the continued faith in astrology could be psychologically explained as a matter of cognitive bias.[80] Skeptics[who?] say that the practice of western astrologers allows them to avoid making verifiable predictions, and gives them the ability to attach significance to arbitrary and unrelated events, in a way that suits their purpose,[81] although science also provides methodologies to separate verifiable significance from arbitrary predictions in research experiments, as demonstrated by Gauquelin’s research and Carlson’s experiment.[citation needed]

Georges Charpak and Henri Broch “dismantled claims from parapsychology and astrology” in the book Debunked! ESP, Telekinesis, and other Pseudoscience [82] They noted that astrologers have only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they do not take into account basic features such as the precession of the equinoxes which would change the position of the star signs with time. [83]

Astrology has repeatedly failed to demonstrate its effectiveness in controlled studies, according to the American Humanist Society. The group characterised those who continue to have faith in astrology as doing so “in spite of the fact that there is no verified scientific basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong evidence to the contrary.”[84] One well-documented and referenced paper, for instance, which conducted a large scale scientific test, involving more than one hundred cognitive, behavioral, physical and other variables, found no support for astrological accuracy.[85]

Astrology has been criticized for failing to provide a physical mechanism that links the movements of celestial bodies to their purported effects on human behavior. In 1975, amid increasing popular interest in astrology, The Humanist magazine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by Bart J. Bok, Lawrence E. Jerome, and Paul Kurtz.[86] The statement, entitled ‘Objections to Astrology’, was signed by 186 astronomers, physicists and leading scientists of the day. They said that there is no scientific foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the public against accepting astrological advice without question. Their criticism focused on the fact that there was no mechanism whereby astrological effects might occur:

We can see how infinitesimally small are the gravitational and other effects produced by the distant planets and the far more distant stars. It is simply a mistake to imagine that the forces exerted by stars and planets at the moment of birth can in any way shape our futures.[87][88]

Astronomer Carl Sagan declined to sign the statement. For this reason, his words have been quoted by those who argue that astrology retains some scientific validity.[89] Sagan said he took this stance not because he thought astrology had any validity, but because he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology because there was no mechanism (while “certainly a relevant point”) was not in itself convincing. In a letter published in a follow-up edition of The Humanist, Sagan confirmed that he would have been willing to sign such a statement had it described and refuted the principal tenets of astrological belief. This, he argued, would have been more persuasive and would have produced less controversy.[90]

In 1953, philosopher Theodor W. Adorno conducted a study of the astrology column of a Los Angeles newspaper as part of a project examining mass culture in capitalist society. Adorno concluded that astrology was a large-scale manifestation of systematic irrationalism, where individuals were subtly being led to believe that the author of the column was addressing them directly through the use of flattery and vague generalizations.[91]

In a lecture in 2001, Stephen Hawking stated “The reason most scientists don’t believe in astrology is because it is not consistent with our theories that have been tested by experiment.”[92] Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson asserted that “astrology was discredited 600 years ago with the birth of modern science. ‘To teach it as though you are contributing to the fundamental knowledge of an informed electorate is astonishing in this, the 21st century’. Education should be about knowing how to think, ‘And part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you‘“. The founder of the Astrological Institute to which Tyson’s criticism was directed responded “It’s quite obvious that he hasn’t studied the subject.”[93]

Astrologers for their part prefer not to attempt to explain astrology,[94] and instead give it supernatural explanations such as divination or synchronicity.[95][96][97] Others have proposed conventional causal agents such as electro-magnetism within an intricate web of planetary fields and resonances in the solar system.[98][99] Scientists dismiss magnetism as an implausible explanation, since the magnetic field of a large but distant planet such as Jupiter is far smaller than that produced by ordinary household appliances when measured from earth.[100]

Carlson’s experiment

A different approach to testing astrology quantitatively uses blind experiment. The most renowned[101] of these is Shawn Carlson’s double-blind chart matching tests in which he challenged 28 astrologers to match over 100 natal charts to psychological profiles generated by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) test. When Carlson’s study was published in Nature in 1985, his conclusion was that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing “clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis”.[102]

Gauquelin’s research

Main article: Mars effect

The initial Mars effect finding, showing the relative frequency of the diurnal position of Mars in the birth charts (N = 570) of “eminent athletes” (red solid line) compared to the expected results [after Michel Gauquelin 1955][103]

In 1955, Michel Gauquelin stated that although he had failed to find evidence to support such indicators as the zodiacal signs and planetary aspects in astrology, he had found positive correlations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and success in professions (such as doctors, scientists, athletes, actors, writers, painters, etc.) which astrology traditionally associates with those planets.[103] The best-known of Gauquelin’s findings is based on the positions of Mars in the natal charts of successful athletes and became known as the “Mars effect“.[104] A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence, and attributed the effect to selective bias on Gauquelin’s part, accusing him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study.[105]

Theological criticism

Some of the practices of astrology were contested on theological grounds by medieval Muslim astronomers such as Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Avicenna. They said that the methods of astrologers conflicted with orthodox religious views of Islamic scholars through the suggestion that the Will of God can be known and predicted in advance.[106] Such arguments mainly concerned “judicial branches” (such as Horary astrology), rather than the more “natural branches” such as Medical and Meteorological astrology, these being seen as part of the natural sciences of the time.

For example, Avicenna’s ‘Refutation against astrology’ Risāla fī ibṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm, argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle of planets acting as the agents of divine causation which express God’s absolute power over creation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the capability of determining the exact influence of the stars.[107] In essence, Avicenna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it.[108]

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), in his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah, also used physical arguments in astronomy to question the practice of judicial astrology.[109] He recognized that the stars are much larger than the planets, and argued:[110]

And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely because of this distance and smallness that their influences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mercury? Why is it that you have given an influence to al-Ra’s and al-Dhanab, which are two imaginary points [ascending and descending nodes]?

Education

Education in astrology is offered in a number of countries of the world:

United States

In the United States, astrological education is offered at institutions such as Kepler College, a liberal arts college with an emphasis on astrology in Lynnwood, Washington, near Seattle, which opened in 2001[111] and awarded its first 8 Bachelor of Arts degrees in Astrological Studies in 2004.[112] However, unless they are completing a course of study, students attending Kepler College after March 9, 2010,[113] are not awarded degrees but certificates of completion of a course of study.[114] The degrees granted by Kepler are not recognized by national or regional accrediting agencies.[115] Other astrological organizations offer study programs and correspondence courses to certify astrologers.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, astrological education is offered at a number of institutions, some offering a diploma upon completion of the course and an examination. In addition, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David at Lampeter offers an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology.[116]

India

In February, 2001, vedic astrology, Jyotish Vigyan, was introduced into the curriculum of Indian universities. Undergraduate (called “graduate” in India) post-graduate and research courses of study were established. “Beneficiaries of these courses would be students, teachers, professionals from modern streams like doctors, architects, marketing, financial, economic and political analysts, etc.”[37] In April 2001 the Andhra Pradesh High Court declined to consider a petition to overturn the curriculum guideline on the ground that astrology was a pseudoscience, a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2004 which declined as a matter of law to interfere with educational policy. The court noted that astrology studies were optional and that courses in astrology were offered by institutions of higher education in other countries.[117]

Notes

  1. ^ Babylonian planet names took a multitude of deity forms, most drawn from one basic deity association; for example, the basic association of Mars was with the war-god Nergal, for whom it expressed representation as the ‘the star of Nergal’.[118]
  2. ^ Some ‘traditional astrologers’ prefer to work only with the seven Classical planets, but most modern astrologers include reference to Uranus (discovered in 1781), Neptune (1846) and Pluto (1930).
    It is therefore conventional for astrology texts to refer to ten planets, which does not include the Earth. These, with their astrological symbols, are as follows:
    ☉ Sun | ☽ Moon | ☿ Mercury | ♀ Venus | ♂ Mars | ♃ Jupiter | ♄ Saturn | ♅ Uranus | ♆ Neptune | ♇ Pluto

References

  1. ^ Koch-Westenholz (1995) Foreword and p.11.
  2. ^ Kassell and Ralley (2010) ‘Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology 1100–1800′; pp.67-69.
  3. ^ Campion (2009) pp.259-263, for the popularizing influence of newspaper astrology; pp. 239-249: for association with New Age philosophies.
  4. ^ Kelly, I.W., R. Culver and P.J. Loptson, 1989: Astrology and science: an examination of the evidence. In Cosmic perspectives: essays dedicated to the memory of M.K.V. Bappu, S.K. Biswas, D.C.V. Mallik, and C.V. Vishveshwara, eds., Cambridge University Press, 249 pp.
  5. ^ Asquith and Hacking (1978) ‘Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience‘ by Paul R. Thagard. See also National Science Board (2006) Science and Engineering Indicators; ch 7: ‘Science and Technology. Public Attitudes and Understanding: Belief in Pseudoscience‘. National Science Foundation (2006); retrieved 19 April 2010:”About three-fourths of Americans hold at least one pseudoscientific belief; i.e., they believed in at least 1 of the 10 survey items[29]” …” Those 10 items were extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts/that spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/situations, telepathy/communication between minds without using traditional senses, clairvoyance/the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future, astrology/that the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives, that people can communicate mentally with someone who has died, witches, reincarnation/the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and channeling/allowing a “spirit-being” to temporarily assume control of a body.”
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. “astrology”. Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=astrology. Retrieved 2011-12-06. “Differentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1400s and by 17c. this word was limited to “reading influences of the stars and their effects on human destiny.”" 
  7. ^ “astrology, n.”. Oxford English Dictionary (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989; online version September 2011. http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/12267. “In Old French and Middle English astronomie seems to be the earlier and general word, astrologie having been subseq. introduced for the ‘art’ or practical application of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 17th cent. to the reputed influences of the stars, unknown to science. Not in Shakespeare.” 
  8. ^ Soanes (2006) ‘Star’ sense 1. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster (1989) p.369. Online at wordsources.info, retrieved 5th August 2011.
  10. ^ Tetrabiblos (Robbins ed. 1940) I.4, p.35, footnote 3.
  11. ^ Pliny (77 AD) illustrated the irony of the use of the term ‘planet’ since the planetary cycles were known to be regular and predictable: “…the seven stars, which owing to their motion we call planets, though no stars wander less than they do”. Pliny the Elder (77) II.iv, p.177.
  12. ^ “Definition of planet”. Merriam-Webster OnLine. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/planet. Retrieved 2007-07-23. 
  13. ^ a b Lewis (1994) p.58: “The Hermetic doctrine of the macrocosm and the microcosm provides the philosophical foundation of astrology and is a counterpart to the modern philosophy of holism. In this view, the psyche is not merely a whole unto itself but is also a part of the greater whole that reflects it”.
  14. ^ Manilius (77) p.87-89 (II.64-67): “the entire universe is alive in mutual concord of its elements and is driven by the pulse of reason, since a single spirit dwells in all its parts and, speeding through all things, nourishes it like a living creature”.
  15. ^ Alkindi (9th cent.) is clarifying this point where he says in his text On the Stellar Rays, ch.4: “… we say that one thing acts with its elemental rays on another, but according to the exquisite truth it does not act but only the celestial harmony acts”.
  16. ^ Culpeper (1653) An Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Human Virtues in the Body of Man, p.1: “As the heart is in the Microcosm, so is the Sun in the Macrocosm: for as the Sun gives life, light, and motion to the Creation, so doth the heart to the body; therefore it [the heart] is called Sol Corporis [’bodily sun’], as the Sun is called Cor Coeli [’heavenly heart’] because their operations are similar”.
  17. ^ McRitchie (2006) p.7: “Each individual, whether it is a person, thing, or an event, is a microcosm born at the center of its own macrocosmic universe. Each individual has its own planets, is identified with its native circumstances, and has a sensitive dependence on its initial configuration within the world of experience that is known and shared in common among other individuals. The circumstances of birth show what has begun.” This clarifies the philosophical principle found in many traditional works, such as Kepler (1619) Harmony of the World, pp.274-5, which describes the astrological influence at birth as a ’spiritual idea’ in which the zodiac exists ‘within’ as well as ‘without’: “the vital faculty, lit in the heart and burning as long as life exists, is in a certain sense a zodiac since its essence consists in activity and in a flow of flame, as it were, the result is that the whole sensible shape of the zodiac flows into it …When therefore, it begins to be what it is at the time when it constructs the harmonies, then most of all the sensible radiant harmony of the planets flows into it”.
  18. ^ Weiss and Taruskin (2008) p.3.
  19. ^ Pliny the Elder (77) pp.277-8, (II.xviii.xx): “…occasionally Pythagoras draws on the theory of music, and designates the distance between the Earth and the Moon as a whole tone, that between the Moon and Mercury as a semitone, …. the seven tones thus producing the so-called diapason, i.e. a universal harmony”.
  20. ^ Houlding (2000) p.28: “The doctrine of the Pythagoreans was a combination of science and mysticism… Like Anaximenes they viewed the Universe as one integrated, living organism, surrounded by Divine Air (or more literally ‘Breath’), which permeates and animates the whole cosmos and filters through to individual creatures… By partaking of the core essence of the Universe, the individual is said to act as a microcosm in which all the laws in the macrocosm of the Universe are at work”.
  21. ^ Davis (1901) p.252. Plato’s Republic VII.XII reads: “As the eyes, said I, seem formed for studying astronomy, so do the ears seem formed for harmonious motions: and these seem to be twin sciences to one another, as also the Pythagoreans say”.
  22. ^ Smith (1996) p.2.
  23. ^ Hackett (1997) p.245 and Smith (1996) p.56.
  24. ^ An English translation of the Harmonica was recently published by Andrew Barker, in his Greek Musical Writings vol. II (Cambridge University Press, 2004). The work was also discussed by James Frederick Mountford in his article ‘The Harmonics of Ptolemy and the Lacuna in II, 14’ (Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 57. 1926; pp.71-95). Mountford refers to Ptolemy’s Harmonica as “the most scientific and best arranged treatise on the theory of musical scales which we possess in Greek”.
  25. ^ Kepler (1619) ‘Introduction’, p.xix. “Kepler did not ascribe any direct physical influence to the celestial bodies but supposed the astrological effects to be the result of instinctive responses of individual souls to the harmonies of certain configurations or aspects. A soul was also ascribed to the Earth itself, whose response to the aspects explained their influence on the weather”. In his Tertius Interveniens, 1610, Kepler defined the horoscope as the celestial imprint imparted at birth: Ch,7: “When a human being’s life is first ignited, when he now has his own life, and can no longer remain in the womb - then he receives a character and an imprint of all the celestial configurations (or the images of the rays intersecting on earth), and retains them unto his grave”. See translated excerpts by Dr. Kenneth G. Negus on Cura. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  26. ^ Kepler (1619) Kepler’s Third Law used to be known as the harmonic law. It captures the relationship between the distance of planets from the Sun, and their orbital periods. “The square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the mean distance from the Sun “.[1] See also Gerald James Holton, Stephen G. Brush (2001). Physics, the Human Adventure. Rutgers University Press. p. 45. ISBN 0-8135-2908-5. http://books.google.com/?id=czaGZzR0XOUC&pg=PA45&dq=Kepler+%22harmonic+law%22. 
  27. ^ Bacon (1623) De Augmentis, p.351. The maxim that the stars impel but do not compel was used by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, “following the same line of argument as St Augustine and others before him” (A history of magic by Richard Cavendish; p.66., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977).
  28. ^ Bacon (1623) De Augmentis, p.351.
  29. ^ Soanes (2006) ‘Astrology’ “The study of the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world”. Retrieved 16 July 2011. Also Weiner (1973) ‘Astrology’ by David Pingree. “…the study of the impact of the celestial bodies”. Retrieved 2nd December 2009.
  30. ^ James R. Lewis, 2003. The Astrology Book: the Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences. Visible Ink Press. Online at Google Books.
  31. ^ James T. Braha, 1986. “Ancient Hindu astrology for the modern western astrologer”. Hermetician Press.
  32. ^ Kaufman, Michael T. (1998-12-23). “BV Raman Dies”. New York Times, December 23, 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/23/world/bangalore-venkata-raman-indian-astrologer-dies-at-86.html. Retrieved 2009-05-12. 
  33. ^ Dipankar Das, May 1996. “Fame and Fortune”. http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/predictive-sciences/astrology.asp. Retrieved 2009-05-12. 
  34. ^ “In countries such as India, where only a small intellectual elite has been trained in Western physics, astrology manages to retain here and there its position among the sciences.” David Pingree and Robert Gilbert, “Astrology; Astrology In India; Astrology in modern times”. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008
  35. ^ Mohan Rao, Female foeticide: where do we go? Indian Journal of Medical Ethics Oct-Dec2001-9(4)[2]
  36. ^ “Indian Astrology vs Indian Science”. Bbc.co.uk. 2001-05-31. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/010531_vedic.shtml. Retrieved 2011-12-10. 
  37. ^ a b “Guidelines for Setting up Departments of Vedic Astrology in Universities Under the Purview of University Grants Commission”. Government of India, Department of Education. http://www.education.nic.in/circulars/astrologycurriculum.htm. Retrieved March 26, 2011. “There is an urgent need to rejuvenate the science of Vedic Astrology in India, to allow this scientific knowledge to reach to the society at large and to provide opportunities to get this important science even exported to the world,” 
  38. ^ ‘Astrology is a science: Bombay HC’, The Times of India, 3 February 2011
  39. ^ Sun and Kistemaker (1997) pp.3-4.
  40. ^ Sun and Kistemaker (1997) pp.22, 85, 176.
  41. ^ F. Richard Stephenson, “Chinese Roots of Modern Astronomy”, New Scientist, 26 June 1980. See also 二十八宿的形成与演变
  42. ^ Cullen, Christopher. Astronomy and mathematics in ancient China: the Zhou bi suan jing”. Cambridge University Press. 1996. pages 2-6.
  43. ^ Theodora Lau, The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes, pp2-8, 30-5, 60-4, 88-94, 118-24, 148-53, 178-84, 208-13, 238-44, 270-78, 306-12, 338-44, Souvenir Press, New York, 2005
  44. ^ “การเปลี่ยนวันใหม่ การนับวัน ทางโหราศาสตร์ไทย การเปลี่ยนปีนักษัตร โหราศาสตร์ ดูดวง ทำนายทายทัก”. http://www.myhora.com/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C/%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C-004.aspx. 
  45. ^ Campion (2008) pp.2-3.
  46. ^ Marshack (1972) p.81ff.
  47. ^ Hesiod (c. 8th cent. BCE). Hesiod’s poem Works and Days shows how the heliacal rising of constellations were used as a calendar for agricultural events, which started to acquire astrological associations, e.g.: “Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time to go sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the deathless gods” (II. 663-677).
  48. ^ Kelley and Milone (2005) p.268.
  49. ^ Two texts which refer to the ‘omens of Sargon’ are reported in E. F. Weidner, ‘Historiches Material in der Babyonischen Omina-Literatur’ Altorientalische Studien, ed. Bruno Meissner, (Leipzig, 1928-9), v. 231 and 236.
  50. ^ From scroll A of the ruler Gudea of Lagash, I 17 – VI 13. O. Kaiser, Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments, Bd. 2, 1-3. Gütersloh, 1986-1991. Also quoted in A. Falkenstein, ‘Wahrsagung in der sumerischen Überlieferung’, La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines. Paris, 1966.
  51. ^ Houlding (2010) Ch. 8: ‘The medieval development of Hellenistic principles concerning aspectual applications and orbs’; pp.12-13.
  52. ^ Albiruni, Chronology (11th c.) Ch.VIII, ‘On the days of the Greek calendar’, re. 23 Tammûz; Sachau.
  53. ^ Houlding (2010) Ch. 6: ‘Historical sources and traditional approaches’; pp.2-7.
  54. ^ Jung, Carl G. Letters 1906–1950, ed. Gerhard Adler, et al. (Princeton University Press: Bollingen, 1992), Letter from Jung to Freud, 12 June 1911. ISBN 978-0-691-09895-1 “I made horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth.”
  55. ^ Campion (2009) p.251–256: “At the same time, in Switzerland, the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was developing sophisticated theories concerning astrology…”
  56. ^ Gieser, Suzanne. The Innermost Kernel, Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli’s Dialogue with C.G.Jung, (Springer, Berlin, 2005) p.21 ISBN 3-540-20856-9
  57. ^ Campion, Nicholas. “Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement. The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology.“( Bath Spa University College, 2003) via Campion, Nicholas, History of Western Astrology, (Continuum Books, London & New York, 2009) p.248 p.256 ISBN 978-1-84725-224-1
  58. ^ Holden, James, A History of Horoscopic Astrology: From the Babylonian Period to the Modern Age, (AFA 1996) p.202 ISBN 0-86690-463-8
  59. ^ Campion (2009) p.258: “Jungian Analyst, Liz Greene.”
  60. ^ Hand, Robert, Horoscope Symbols (Para Research 1981) p.349 ISBN 0-914918-16-8
  61. ^ Hyde, Maggie. Jung and Astrology. (Aquarian/Harper Collins, 1992) p.105 ISBN 1-85538-115-X http://www.skyscript.co.uk/synchronicity.html
  62. ^ Harding, M & Harvey, C, Working with Astrology, The Psychology of Midpoints, Harmonics and Astro*Carto*Graphy, (Penguin Arkana 1990) (3rd edition pp.8–13) ISBN 1-873948-03-4
  63. ^ Davis, Martin, From Here to There, An Astrologer’s Guide to Astromapping, (Wessex Astrologer, England, 2008) Ch1. History, p.2 ISBN 978-1-902405-27-8
  64. ^ Lewis, Jim & Irving, Ken, The Psychology of Astro*Carto*Graphy, (Penguin Arkana 1997) ISBN 1-357-91864-2
  65. ^ Humphrey Taylor. “The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2003″. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=359. Retrieved 2007-01-05.  Also see “Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding”. National Science Foundation. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2.htm#c7s2l3. Retrieved 2007-01-05. 
  66. ^ Gallup (2005): Paranormal Beliefs by Linda Lyons, retrieved 20 July 2011. For the view that belief in astrology could be much higher than Gallup reports see Campion (1997), ‘British Public Perceptions of Astrology: An Approach from the Sociology of Knowledge’ by John Bauer and Martin Durant, which reports a figure of 73%.
  67. ^ Luhrmann, Tanya (1991). Persuasions of the witch’s craft: ritual magic in contemporary England. Harvard University Press. pp. 147–151. ISBN 0-674-66324-1. 
  68. ^ “Online Etymology Dictionary”. Etymonline.com. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=influenza. Retrieved 2011-12-10. 
  69. ^ Ζωλότας Ξενοφών. “Ελληνικές λέξεις στην αγγλική”. http://www.xhmikos.gr/ZOLWTAS-ELLHNIKA-AGGLIKA.pdf. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
  70. ^ For discussions of Chaucer’s astrological references see A. Kitson (1996). “Astrology and English literature”. Contemporary Review, October 1996. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_n1569_v269/ai_18920172. Retrieved 2006-07-17.  M. Allen, J.H. Fisher. “Essential Chaucer: Science, including astrology”. University of Texas, San Antonio. http://colfa.utsa.edu/chaucer/ec22.html. Retrieved 2006-07-17.  A.B.P. Mattar et al.. “Astronomy and Astrology in the Works of Chaucer”. University of Singapore. http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/gem-projects/hm/astronomy_and_astrology_in_the_works_of_chaucer.pdf. Retrieved 2006-07-17.  For discussions of Shakespeare’s astrological references see P. Brown. “Shakespeare, Astrology, and Alchemy: A Critical and Historical Perspective”. The Mountain Astrologer, February/March 2004. http://www.astrofuturetrends.com/id19.html.  F. Piechoski. “Shakespeare’s Astrology”. http://starcats.com/anima/shakespeare.html. 
  71. ^ Alastair Jamieson (2008-11-30). “Secret theme behind Narnia Chronicles is based upon the stars, says new research”. The Telegraph, London. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/3536716/Secret-theme-behind-Narnia-Chronicles-is-based-upon-the-stars-says-new-research.html. Retrieved 2011-07-24. 
  72. ^ Spencer, Neil. Stargazers? But of course. The Observer. (12 November 2000)[3] “Gone With the Wind, is a thinly disguised astrological allegory. Margaret Mitchell based the characters of her torrid epic on the zodiac, leaving a blatant trail of clues which were only picked up in 1978 when US astrologer Darrell Martinie was shown photocopies of notes from Mitchell’s library.”
  73. ^ “Rare JK Rowling work on the market for £25,000″. The Scotsman, Edinburgh. 30 July 2010. http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/Rare-JK-Rowling-work-on.6449408.jp.  Robert Currey. “Astrology and J K Rowling”. www.astrology.co.uk. http://www.astrology.co.uk/news/jkrowlingastrology.htm. Retrieved 3 August 2011.  Paul Fraser (26 May 2010). “An incredibly rare unpublished work by J.K.Rowling”. Paul Fraser Collectibles. http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/section.asp?catid=78&docid=1888. 
  74. ^ Campion (2009) pp.244–245.
  75. ^ Regan, Donald T., (1988) For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York ISBN 0-15-163966-3
  76. ^ Quigley, Joan (1990), What does Joan say? My Seven Years as White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan, Birch Lane Press, New York ISBN 1-55972-032-8
  77. ^ Gorney, Cynthia (May 11, 1988) The Reagan Chart Watch; Astrologer Joan Quigley, Eye on the Cosmos, Washington Post [4]
  78. ^ Richard Dawkins (31 December 1995). “The Real Romance in the Stars”. London: The Independent, December 1995. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/the-real-romance-in-the-stars-1527970.html. . See also “Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic’s Resource List”. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/pseudobib.html. 
  79. ^ Hartmann, P; Reuter M, Nyborga H (May 2006). “The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study”. Personality and Individual Differences 40 (7): 1349–1362. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017. 
  80. ^ Eysenck, H.J., and Nias, D.K.B. (1982) pp.42-48.
  81. ^ About.com: Is Astrology a Pseudoscience? Examining the Basis and Nature of Astrology
  82. ^ Giomataris, Ioannis. “Nature Obituary Georges Charpak (1924–2010)”. Nature. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v467/n7319/full/4671048a.html. Retrieved 13 May 2012. 
  83. ^ Charpak, Georges; Holland, Henri Broch ; translated by Bart K. (2004). Debunked! : ESP, telekinesis, and other pseudoscience. Baltimore [u.a.9: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. p. 6,7. ISBN 0801878675. http://books.google.ie/books?id=DpnWcMzeh8oC&q=astrology#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
  84. ^ Bart Bok, Paul Kurtz and Lawrence Jerome, “Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists” in The Humanist September/October, 1975.
  85. ^ Is Astrology relevant to consciousness and Psi?
  86. ^ The Humanist, volume 35, no.5 (September/October 1975); pp. 4-6. The statement is reproduced in ‘The Strange Case of Astrology’ by Paul Feyerabend, published in Grim (1990) pp.19-23.
  87. ^ “Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists”. The Humanist, September/October 1975. Archived from the original on 2009-03-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20090318140638/http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/astrology.html. 
  88. ^ Bok, Bart J.; Lawrence E. Jerome, Paul Kurtz (1982). “Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists”. In Patrick Grim. Philosophy of Science and the Occult. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 14–18. ISBN 0-87395-572-2. 
  89. ^ See for example Das (2009) Introduction, p.xvii.
  90. ^ The Humanist, volume 36, no.5 (1976).
  91. ^ http://cablegram.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/5639-the_stars_down_to.pdf
  92. ^ “British Physicist Debunks Astrology in Indian Lecture”. Associated Press. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/63/story_6346_1.html. 
  93. ^ “Ariz. Astrology School Accredited”. The Washington Post. 2001-08-27. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010827/aponline135357_000.htm. 
  94. ^ M. Harding. “Prejudice in Astrological Research”. Correlation, Vol 19(1). http://www.astrozero.co.uk/astroscience/harding.htm. 
  95. ^ Jung, C.G., (1952), Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle (London: RKP English edition, 1972), p.36. “synchronicity …(is)…a coincidence in time of two or more casually unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning, in contrast to ’synchronism’, which simply means the simultaneous occurrence of two events”.
  96. ^ Maggie Hyde, Jung and Astrology; p.24–26; 121ff. (London: The Aquarian Press, 1992). “As above, so below. Early in his studies, Jung came across the ancient macrocosm-microcosm belief with its enduring theme of the organic unity of all things”; p.121.
  97. ^ Cornelius (2003). Cornelius’s thesis is - although divination is rarely addressed by astrologers, it is an obvious descriptive tag “despite all appearances of objectivity and natural law. It is divination despite the fact that aspects of symbolism can be approached through scientific method, and despite the possibility that some factors in horoscopy can arguably be validated by the appeal to science.” (’Introduction’, p.xxii).
  98. ^ Dr. P. Seymour, Astrology: The Evidence of Science. Penguin Group (London, 1988) ISBN 0-14-019226-3
    The Scientific Proof of Astrology. A scientific investigation into how the stars influence human life.[5] Quantum, Foulsham (Slough 1997) ISBN 0-572-02906-3
  99. ^ Frank McGillion. “The Pineal Gland and the Ancient Art of Iatromathematica”. http://www.astrology-research.net/researchlibrary/Iatr/pineal.htm. 
  100. ^ “Sunday Times Article on Percy Seymour’s book “Scientific Proof of Astrology”". Astrologer.com. 2004-05-16. http://www.astrologer.com/tests/seymour.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-10. 
  101. ^ Muller, Richard (2010). “Web site of Richard A. Muller, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley,”. http://muller.lbl.gov/homepage.html. Retrieved 2011-08-02. My former student Shawn Carlson published in Nature magazine the definitive scientific test of Astrology.
    Maddox, Sir John (1995). “John Maddox, editor of the science journal Nature, commenting on Carlson’s test”. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fqwVx-Bt9BMJ:www.randi.org/encyclopedia/astrology.html+maddox+perfectly+convincing+and+lasting+demonstration&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&source=www.google.com. Retrieved 2011-08-02.  ” … a perfectly convincing and lasting demonstration.”
  102. ^ Carlson, Shawn (1985). “A double-blind test of astrology”. Nature 318 (6045): 419–425. Bibcode 1985Natur.318..419C. doi:10.1038/318419a0. http://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Astrology-Carlson.pdf. 
  103. ^ a b Gauquelin, Michel (1955). L’influence des astres : étude critique et expérimentale. Paris: Éditions du Dauphin. 
  104. ^ Gauquelin, Michel (Fall 1988). “Is There Really a Mars Effect?”. Above & Below Journal of Astrological Studies (11): 4–7. http://www.theoryofastrology.com/gauquelin/mars_effect.htm. 
  105. ^ Benski, Claude, et al., The “Mars Effect” (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996).
  106. ^ Saliba, George (1994b). A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam. New York University Press. pp. 60 & 67–69. ISBN 0-8147-8023-7. 
  107. ^ Catarina Belo, Catarina Carriço Marques de Moura Belo, Chance and determinism in Avicenna and Averroës, p.228. Brill, 2007. ISBN 90-04-15587-2.
  108. ^ George Saliba, Avicenna: ‘viii. Mathematics and Physical Sciences’. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2011, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avicenna-viii
  109. ^ Livingston, John W. (1971). “Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 91 (1): 96–103. doi:10.2307/600445. JSTOR 600445. 
  110. ^ Livingston, John W. (1971). “Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 91 (1): 96–103 [99]. doi:10.2307/600445. JSTOR 600445. 
  111. ^ McClure, Robert (July 23, 2001). “Astrology school sets off controversy”. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/32348_astrology23.shtml. Retrieved March 26, 2011. 
  112. ^ “Kepler College First Graduation, October 10, 2004″. StarIQ.Com. http://www.stariq.com/pagetemplate/article.asp?PageID=5789. Retrieved March 26, 2011. 
  113. ^ “Degree-Granting Authorization”. Kepler College. http://www.kepler.edu/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:kepler-college-authorization&catid=38:about-kepler-college&Itemid=153. Retrieved March 26, 2011. “Kepler College Authorization Degree-Granting Authorization Kepler College is authorized by the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board and through March 9, 2010, the College met the requirements and minimum standards established for degree-granting institutions under the Degree Authorization Act. Students attending the college between March 9, 2000 and March 9, 2010 (and extended to March 9, 2012 to include students completing the teach-out of their degrees) earned Washington State authorized degrees in: Associate of Arts Bachelor of Arts Master of Arts in: Eastern and Western Traditions The History, Philosophy and Transmission of Astrology” 
  114. ^ “Certificate Program Information”. Kepler College. http://www.kepler.edu/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=100&Itemid=212. Retrieved March 26, 2011. 
  115. ^ “Was your degree program accredited?”. Kepler College. http://www.kepler.edu/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142:are-you-accredited&catid=7:general-information&Itemid=121. Retrieved March 26, 2011. 
  116. ^ “MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology”. Trinity Saint David, The University of Wales. http://www.tsd.ac.uk/en/Sophia. Retrieved April 26, 2011. 
  117. ^ “Introduction of Vedic astrology courses in varsities upheld.” The Hindu, May 06, 2004
  118. ^ Brown (2000) pp.63-72.
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  • Campion, Nicholas, 2008. A History of Western Astrology, Vol. 1, The Ancient World (first published as The Dawn of Astrology: a Cultural History of Western Astrology. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-8129-9.
  • Campion, Nicholas, 2009. A History of Western Astrology, Vol. 2, The Medieval and Modern Worlds. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-8129-9.
  • Cornelius, Geoffrey, 2003. The Moment of Astrology: Origins in Divination. Bournemouth: Wessex. (Originally published by Penguin Arkana, 1994). ISBN 1-902405-11-0.
  • Culpeper, Nicholas, 1652. ‘An Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Human Virtues in the Body of Man’ transcribed and annotated by D. Houlding. Skyscript, 2009. Originally published in Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (English Physician). London: Peter Cole, 1652.
  • Davis, Henry, 1901. The Republic The Statesman of Plato. London: M. W. Dunne 1901; Nabu Press reprint, 2010. ISBN 978-1-146-97972-6.
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  • Hesiod (c. 8th cent. BCE) . Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, Hugh G., 1914. Loeb classical library; revised edition. Cambridge: Harvard Press, 1964. ISBN 978-0-674-99063-0.
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  • Kepler, Johannes, 1619. The Harmony of the World, translated by E.J. Aiton, A.M. Duncan and J.V. Field (1997). Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-209-0.
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  • Lewis, James R., 1994. The Astrology Encyclopedia. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-0-8103-8900-7.
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  • Rawley, William, 1858. The Works of Francis Bacon. Longmans 1858. Boston: Adamant Media. ISBN 978-1-4021-8221-1. Digitized by Harvard University, 2006; online at Google books.)
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Artist

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For other uses, see Artist (disambiguation).

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German artist known for his works of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, visual arts, and science.

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only. The term is often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (less often for actors). “Artiste” (the French for artist) is a variant used in English only in this context. Use of the term to describe writers, for example, is certainly valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like criticism.

Contents

Dictionary definitions

Wiktionary defines the noun ‘artist’ (Singular: artist; Plural: artists) as follows:

  1. A person who creates art.
  2. A person who creates art as an occupation.
  3. A person who is skilled at some activity.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term “artist”:

  • A learned person or Master of Arts
  • One who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry
  • A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice
  • A follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic
  • One who makes their craft a fine art
  • One who cultivates one of the fine arts – traditionally the arts presided over by the muses

A definition of Artist from Princeton.edu: creative person (a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination).

History of the term

Although the Greek word “techně” is often mistranslated as “art,” it actually implies mastery of any sort of craft. The Latin-derived form of the word is “tecnicus”, from which the English words technique, technology, technical are derived.

In Greek culture each of the nine Muses oversaw a different field of human creation:

No muse was identified with the visual arts of painting and sculpture. In ancient Greece sculptors and painters were held in low regard, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work regarded as mere manual labour.[1]

The word art is derived from the Latin “ars”, which, although literally defined means, “skill method” or “technique”, holds a connotation of beauty.

During the Middle Ages the word artist already existed in some countries such as Italy, but the meaning was something resembling craftsman, while the word artesan was still unknown. An artist was someone able to do a work better than others, so the skilled excellency was underlined, rather than the activity field. In this period some “artisanal” products (such as textiles) were much more precious and expensive than paintings or sculptures.

The first division into major and minor arts dates back to Leon Battista Alberti’s works (De re aedificatoria, De statua, De pictura), focusing the importance of intellectual skills of the artist rather than the manual skills (even if in other forms of art there was a project behind).[2]

With the Academies in Europe (second half of 16th century) the gap between fine and applied arts was definitely set.

Many contemporary definitions of “artist” and “art” are highly contingent on culture, resisting aesthetic prescription, in much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful, cannot be standardized easily without corruption into kitsch.

The present day concept of an ‘artist’

Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art. An artist also may be defined unofficially as “a person who expresses him- or herself through a medium”. The word is also used in a qualitative sense of, a person creative in, innovative in, or adept at, an artistic practice.

Most often, the term describes those who create within a context of the fine arts or ‘high culture‘, activities such as drawing, painting, sculpture, acting, dancing, writing, filmmaking, photography, and music—people who use imagination, talent, or skill to create works that may be judged to have an aesthetic value. Art historians and critics define artists as those who produce art within a recognized or recognizable discipline. Contrasting terms for highly-skilled workers in media in the applied arts or decorative arts include artisan, craftsman, and specialized terms such as potter, goldsmith or glassblower. Fine arts artists such as painters succeeded in the Renaissance in raising their status, formerly similar to these workers, to a decisively higher level, but in the 20th century the distinction became rather less relevant[citation needed].

The term may be also used loosely or metaphorically to denote highly skilled people in any non-”art” activities, as well— law, medicine, mechanics, or mathematics, for example.

Often, discussions on the subject focus on the differences among “artist” and “technician“, “entertainer” and “artisan“, “fine art” and “applied art“, or what constitutes art and what does not. The French word artiste (which in French, simply means “artist”) has been imported into the English language where it means a performer (frequently in Music Hall or Vaudeville). Use of the word “artiste” can also be a pejorative term.[3]

The English word ‘artiste’ has thus, a narrower range of meaning than the word ‘artiste’ in French.

Examples of art and artists

See also

Portal icon Arts portal

Notes

  1. ^ In Our Time: The Artist BBC Radio 4, TX 28th March 2002
  2. ^ P.Galloni, Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza, Bari, 1998
  3. ^ Kenneth G. Wilson. The Columbia guide to standard American English.

References

  • P.Galloni, Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza, Bari, 1998
  • C. T. Onions (1991). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Clarendon Press Oxford. ISBN 0-19-861126-9
Look up artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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Spirituality

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Not to be confused with Spiritualism.
Spirituality
52706main hstorion lg.jpg
Major Concepts
Spirit ♦ Immaterialism
Soul
Metaphysics
Studies
Consciousness
Supernatural
Monism
Paranormal
Practices
Presentism ♦ Spiritism,
Esotericism
Meditation
Related

Mysticism
Esotericism
Emotions
Self-realization
Paradigm shift
Esteem
Dignity
Shamanism

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality;[1] an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”[2] Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual’s inner life; spiritual experience includes that of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; with other individuals or the human community; with nature or the cosmos; or with the divine realm.[3] Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life.[4] It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world.

Contents

Definition

Traditionally, many religions have regarded spirituality as an integral aspect of religious experience. Among other factors, declining membership of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the western world have given rise to a broader view of spirituality.[5] The term “spiritual” is now frequently used in contexts in which the term “religious” was formerly employed; compare James‘ 1902 lectures on the “Varieties of Religious Experience”.[6][7]

Secular spirituality emphasizes humanistic ideas on qualities such as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, responsibility, harmony, and a concern for others[8]:22, aspects of life and human experience which go beyond a purely materialist view of the world, without necessarily accepting belief in a supernatural reality or divine being. Spiritual practices such as mindfulness and meditation can be experienced as beneficial or even necessary for human fulfillment without any supernatural interpretation or explanation. Spirituality in this context may be a matter of nurturing thoughts, emotions, words and actions that are in harmony with a belief that everything in the universe is mutually dependent; this stance has much in common with some versions of Buddhist spirituality. A modern definition is as follows:

“Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issues of how our lives fit into the greater scheme of things. This is true when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is “spiritual” when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life.”[9]

The psychology of religion uses a variety of metrics to measure spirituality.[10]

Spiritual path

In a wide variety of traditions, spirituality is seen as a path toward one or more of the following: a higher state of awareness, perfection of one’s own being, wisdom, or communion with God or with creation. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which appears in book VII of The Republic, is a description of such a journey, as are the writings of Teresa of Avila. The Vedas and Upanishads also describe such a path of transformation.

Disciplines such a path entail may include meditation, prayer, and the contemplation of sacred texts; ethical development;[8]:33 and some sort of spiritual transmission, sometimes through a preceptor. Spirituality aims both at inner growth and outward manifestations of this growth. Love and/or compassion are often described as the mainstay of spiritual development.[8][11]

Religion

Whilst the terms spirituality and religion both relate to a search for an Absolute or God, and thus have much overlap, there are also characteristic differences in their usage. Religion implies a particular faith tradition that includes acceptance of a metaphysical or supernatural reality;[8]:22, whereas spirituality is not necessarily bound to any particular religious tradition. Thus William Irwin Thompson suggest that “religion is the form spirituality takes in a civilization.”[12]

Those who speak of spirituality outside of religion often define themselves as “spiritual but not religious” and generally believe in the existence of different “spiritual paths,” emphasizing the importance of finding one’s own individual path to spirituality. According to one poll, about 24% of the United States population identifies itself as spiritual but not religious.[13]

Spirituality within particular religious traditions

In the Catholic Church, spirituality is generally seen as an integral part of religion, as much for the laity as for the ‘religious’ (i.e. those who have taken vows to the Church). There is a variety of charisms that emphasize particular ways to serve God and humanity. See Catholic spirituality, Ignatian spirituality.

For Anglican spirituality, see Anglican devotions.

Science

Since the scientific revolution, the relationship of science to religion and spirituality has developed in complex ways.[14][15] Historian John Hedley Brooke describes wide variations: “the natural sciences have been invested with religious meaning, with antireligious implications and, in many contexts, with no religious significance at all.”[15]:16 The popular notion of antagonisms between science and religion[16][17] has historically originated with “thinkers with a social or political ax to grind” rather than with the natural philosophers themselves.[15]:13 Though physical and biological scientists today avoid supernatural explanations to describe reality[18][19][20] (see naturalism), many scientists continue to consider science and spirituality to be complementary, not contradictory.[21][22] Neuroscientists are trying to learn more about how the brain functions during reported spiritual experiences.[23][24]

During the twentieth century the relationship between science and spirituality has been influenced both by Freudian psychology, which has accentuated the boundaries between the two areas by accentuating individualism and secularism, and by developments in particle physics, which reopened the debate about complementarity between scientific and religious discourse and rekindled for many an interest in holistic conceptions of reality.[15]:322 These holistic conceptions were championed by New Age spiritualists in a type of quantum mysticism that they claim justifies their spiritual beliefs,[25][26] though quantum physicists themselves on the whole reject such attempts as being pseudoscientific.[27][28]

See also: Relationship between religion and science

Personal well-being

In keeping with a general increase in interest in spirituality and complementary and alternative treatments, prayer has garnered attention among some behavioral scientists. Masters and Spielmans[29] have conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of distant intercessory prayer, but detected no discernible effects.

Spirituality has played a central role in self-help movements such as Alcoholics Anonymous: “…if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead….”[30]

If spirituality is understood as the search for or the development of inner peace or the foundations of happiness, then spiritual practice of some kind is essential for personal well being. This activity may or may not include belief in supernatural beings. If one has such a belief and feels that relationship to such beings is the foundation of happiness then spiritual practice will be pursued on that basis: if one has no such belief spiritual practice is still essential for the management and understanding of thoughts and emotions which otherwise prevent happiness. Many techniques and practices developed and explored in religious contexts, such as meditation, are immensely valuable in themselves as skills for managing aspects of the inner life.[31][32]

Near-death experience (NDE)

Main article: Near death experience

If consciousness exists apart from the body, which includes the brain, one is attached not only to the material world, but to a non-temporal (spiritual) world as well. This thesis is considered to be analyzed by testing the reports from people who have experienced death. However, some researchers consider that NDEs are actually REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest.[33]

Sacredness

Social scientists have defined spirituality as the search for “the sacred,” where “the sacred” is broadly defined as that which is set apart from the ordinary and worthy of veneration. Spirituality can be sought not only through traditional organized religions, but also through movements such as the feminist theology and ecological spirituality (see Green politics). Spirituality is associated with mental health, managing substance abuse, marital functioning, parenting, and coping. It has been suggested that spirituality also leads to finding purpose and meaning in life.[34]

Origin

See Timeline of religion and Evolutionary origin of religions

History

See also: History of religion

Words translatable as ’spirituality’ first began to arise in the 5th century and only entered common use toward the end of the Middle Ages.[35] Spiritual innovators who operated within the context of a religious tradition often became marginalized or suppressed as heretics or separated out as schismatics. In these circumstances, anthropologists generally treat so-called “spiritual” practices such as shamanism in the sphere of the religious, and class even non-traditional activities such as those of Robespierre’s Cult of the Supreme Being in the province of religion.[36]

Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers, often opposed to clericalism and skeptical of religion, sometimes came to express their more emotional responses to the world under the rubric of “the Sublime” rather than discussing “spirituality”. The spread of the ideas of modernity began to diminish the role of religion in society and in popular thought.[citation needed] Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was a pioneer of the idea of spirituality as a distinct field.[37] Important early 20th century writers who studied the phenomenon of spirituality, and their works, include William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), and Rudolph Otto, especially The Idea of the Holy (1917).[citation needed] The distinction between the spiritual and the religious became more common in the popular mind during the late 20th century with the rise of secularism and the advent of the New Age movement. Authors such as Chris Griscom and Shirley MacLaine explored it in numerous ways in their books. Paul Heelas noted the development within New Age circles of what he called “seminar spirituality”:[38] structured offerings complementing consumer choice with spiritual options.

Study

In the late 19th century a Pakistani scholar Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi wrote of and taught about the science of Islamic spirituality, of which the best known form remains the Sufi tradition (famous through Rumi and Hafiz) in which a spiritual master or pir transmits spiritual discipline to students.[39]

Building on both the Western esoteric tradition and theosophy,[40] Rudolf Steiner and others in the anthroposophic tradition have attempted to apply systematic methodology to the study of spiritual phenomena,[41] building upon ontological and epistemological questions that arose out of transcendental philosophy.[42] This enterprise does not attempt to redefine natural science, but to explore inner experience – especially our thinking – with the same rigor that we apply to outer (sensory) experience.

See also

Portal icon Spirituality portal

Notes and references

  1. ^ Ewert Cousins, preface to Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman, Modern Esoteric Spirituality, Crossroad Publishing 1992.
  2. ^ Philip Sheldrake, A Brief History of Spirituality, Wiley-Blackwell 2007 p. 1-2
  3. ^ Margaret A. Burkhardt and Mary Gail Nagai-Jacobson, Spirituality: living our connectedness, Delmar Cengage Learning, p. xiii
  4. ^ Kees Waaijman, Spirituality: forms, foundations,methods Leuven: Peeters, 2002 p. 1
  5. ^ Michael Hogan (2010). The Culture of Our Thinking in Relation to Spirituality. Nova Science Publishers: New York.
  6. ^ James, W. (1985). The varieties of religious experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1902)
  7. ^ Gorsuch, R.L., & Miller, W. R. (1999). Assessing spirituality. In W. R. Miller (Ed), Integrating spirituality into treatment (pp. 47-64). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  8. ^ a b c d Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium, NY:Riverhead Books, 1999
  9. ^ Fuller, Robert C. Spiritual, But Not Religious. beliefnet.com. Retrieved on: 2011-12-03
  10. ^ Afton N. Kapuscinski & Kevin S. Masters (2010). “The current status of measures of spirituality: A critical review of scale development”. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (American Psychological Association) 2 (4): 191–205. doi:10.1037/a0020498. ISSN 1941-1022. 
  11. ^ Kalchuri, Bhau: Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, the Biography of the Avatar of the Age Meher Baba, Volume Eight, Manifestation, Inc., 1986, p. 22987.
  12. ^ Thompson, William Irwin (1981). The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Origins of Culture. St. Martin’s Griffin. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-312-16062-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=u3nB0NpAX60C. 
  13. ^ http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2005/08/Newsweekbeliefnet-Poll-Results.aspx#spiritrel
  14. ^ Gascoigne, John (1988). Cambridge in the Age of the Enlightenment: Science, Religion and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 300. 
  15. ^ a b c d Brooke, John Hedley (1991). Science and religion: some historical perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
  16. ^ Applebaum, Wilbur. Encyclopedia of the scientific revolution: from Copernicus to Newton Volume 1800 of Garland reference library of the humanities. Psychology Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8153-1503-1, ISBN 978-0-8153-1503-2
  17. ^ R. Cruz Begay, MPH, DrPH, Science And Spirituality March 2003, Vol 93, No. 3 | American Journal of Public Health 363 American Public Health Association
  18. ^ Clarke, Steve. Naturalism, Science, and the Supernatural in Sophia From the issue entitled “Special APRA Issue” Volume 48, Number 2, 127-142, doi:10.1007/s11841-009-0099-2
  19. ^ Dawkins, R. (1986). The blind watchmaker. New York: Norton.
  20. ^ Stroud, B. (2004). The charm of naturalism. In M. De Caro & D. Macarthur (Eds.), Naturalism in question (pp. 21–35). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  21. ^ Richardson, W. Mark. Science and the spiritual quest: new essays by leading scientists Psychology Press, 2002 ISBN 0-415-25767-0, ISBN 978-0-415-25767-1
  22. ^ Giniger, Kenneth Seeman & Templeton, John. Spiritual evolution: scientists discuss their beliefs. Templeton Foundation Press, 1998. ISBN 1-890151-16-5, ISBN 978-1-890151-16-4
  23. ^ Alper, Matthew, The “God” Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God Sourcebooks, Inc., 2008 ISBN 1-4022-1452-9, ISBN 978-1-4022-1452-3
  24. ^ Talan, Jamie Science Probes Spirituality February/March 2006: Scientific American Mind. [1]
  25. ^ Capra, Fritjof (1991 (1st ed. 1975)). The Tao of Physics: an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism, 3rd ed.. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 0-87773-594-8 
  26. ^ Laszlo, Ervin, “CosMos:A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole World”, Hay House, Inc, 2008, ISBN 1-4019-1891-3, pg. 53-58
  27. ^ Sheremer, Michael, Quantum Quackery in Scientific American (January 2005), 292, 34. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0105-34
  28. ^ Silverman, Mark P. Quantum superposition: counterintuitive consequences of coherence, entanglement, and interference Frontiers collection. Springer, 2008 ISBN 3-540-71883-4, ISBN 978-3-540-71883-3. p. 25
  29. ^ Masters, K.S.; Spielmans, G.I (2007). “Prayer and health: review, meta-analysis, and research agenda”. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 30 (4): 329–338. doi:10.1007/s10865-007-9106-7. PMID 17487575. 
  30. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous, p.14-15.
  31. ^ “The lost Art of being happy - spirituality for skeptics” Wilkinson 2007
  32. ^ “Happiness, a guide to one of life’s most important skills” Ricard 2007
  33. ^ http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-life-after-death.htm
  34. ^ Snyder, C.R.; Lopez, Shane J. (2007). “11″. Positive Psychology. Sage Publications, Inc.. ISBN 0-7619-2633-X 
  35. ^ Jones, L. G., “”A thirst for god or consumer spirituality? Cultivating disciplined practices of being engaged by god,” in L. Gregory Jones and James J. Buckley eds., Spirituality and Social Embodiment, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, 3-28, p4, n4.
  36. ^ Jordan, David, “The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre”, University of Chicago Press, 1989, ISBN 0-226-41037-4, pg. 201
  37. ^ Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Restless Souls : The Making of American Spirituality. San Francisco: Harper, 2005. ISBN 0-06-054566-6
  38. ^ Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996, page 60. Cited in Anthony Giddens: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity, 2001, page 554.
  39. ^ Azeemi,K.S., “Muraqaba: The Art and Science of Sufi Meditation”. Houston: Plato, 2005. (ISBN 0-9758875-4-8), Pg. xi
  40. ^ Olav Hammer, Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age, ISBN 90-04-13638-X
  41. ^ Robert McDermott, The Essential Steiner, ISBN 0-06-065345-0, pp. 3-4
  42. ^ Jonael Schickler, Metaphysics as Christology: An odyssey of the Self from Kant and Hegel to Steiner (Ashgate New Critical Thinking: 2005) pp. 138ff

Further reading

  • A Course in Miracles. 2nd ed., Mill Valley: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1992, ISBN 0-9606388-9-X.
  • Azeemi, K.S.Muraqaba: The Art and Science of Sufi Meditation. Houston: Plato, 2005. (ISBN 0-9758875-4-8)
  • Baba, Meher (2000). The Path of Love. Myrtle Beach, S.C.: Sheriar Press. ISBN 1-880619-23-7. 
  • Bjelica, Drago The Bible For The New Age (Online). 2009.
  • Bolman, L. G., and Deal, T. E. Leading With Soul. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
  • Borysenko, J. A Woman’s Journey to God. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.
  • Cannon, K. G. Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community. New York: Continuum, 1996.
  • Cappel, Constance, Dera Poetry, Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris, 2007.
  • Cheroff, Seth, The Manual For Living. CO Spirit Scope, 2008.
  • Clift, Jean Dalby (2008). The Mystery of Love and the Path of Prayer. ISBN 978-1-4404-6637-3. 
  • Deloria, V., Jr. God is Red. 2d Ed. Golden, Co: North American Press, 1992, ISBN 1-55591-904-9.
  • Dillard, C. B.; Abdur-Rashid, D.; and Tyson, C. A. “My Soul is a Witness.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 13, no. 5 (September 2000): 447-462.
  • Dirkx, J. M. “Nurturing Soul in Adult Learning.” in Transformative Learning in Action. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 74, edited by P. Cranton, pp. 79–88. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
  • Downey, Michael. Understanding Christian Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1997.
  • Eck, Diana L. A New Religious America. San Francisco: Harper, 2001.
  • Elkins D.N. et al. (1998)Toward a humanistic-phenomenological spirituality: definition, description and measurement. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 28(4), 5-18
  • English, L., and Gillen, M., eds. Addressing the Spiritual Dimensions of Adult Learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 85. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
  • Goddart, Michael. Spiritual Revolution: A Seeker’s Guide; 52 Powerful Principles for Your Mind & Soul, DeVorss, 1997.
  • Haisch, Bernard The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, and What’s Behind It All, (Preface), Red Wheel/Weiser, 2006, ISBN 1-57863-374-5
  • Hein, David (1997). “Christianity and Traditional Lakota / Dakota Spirituality: A Jamesian Interpretation”. The McNeese Review 35: 128–38. 
  • Hein, David, and Edward Hugh Henderson, editors. Captured by the Crucified: The Practical Theology of Austin Farrer. New York and London: Continuum / T & T Clark, 2004. About the spiritual theology of Austin Farrer; includes chapter on “Farrer’s Spirituality” by Diogenes Allen.
  • Hein, David, and Charles R. Henery, editors. Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock; Cambridge, UK: James Clarke & Co., 2010.
  • Holtje, D. (1995). From Light to Sound: The Spiritual Progression. Temecula, CA: MasterPath, Inc. ISBN 1-885949-00-6
  • Martsolf, D.S.; Mickley, J.R. (1998). “The concept of spirituality in nursing theories: differing world-views and extent of focus”. Journal of Advanced Nursing 27 (2): 294–303. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00519.x. PMID 9515639. 
  • Masters, K.S.; Spielmans, G.I (2007). “Prayer and health: review, meta-analysis, and research agenda”. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 30 (4): 329–338. doi:10.1007/s10865-007-9106-7. PMID 17487575. 
  • Percival, Harold W. Thinking and Destiny, ISBN 0-911650-06-7
  • Perry, Whitall N. A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom: An Encyclopedia of Humankind’s Spiritual Truth. Louisville: Fons Vitae books, 2000, ISBN 1-887752-33-1
  • Ram Chandra(Shajahanpur). Reality at Dawn.
  • Roberts, Jane (1974). The Nature of Personal Reality. Prentice-Hall. reprinted (1994) Amber-Allen Publishing. ISBN 1-878424-06-8
  • Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That, Acorn Press, 1990, ISBN 0-89386-022-0
  • Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Restless Souls : The Making of American Spirituality. San Francisco: Harper, 2005. ISBN 0-06-054566-6
  • Sandra M. Schneiders (1989). “Spirituality in the academy”. Theological Studies 50 (4): 676–697. ISSN 0040-5639. http://pao.chadwyck.com/articles/displayItem.do?QueryType=articles&QueryIndex=journal&ResultsID=1307059952A444264&ItemNumber=3&BackTo=journalid&BackToParam=QueryType=journals. 
  • Shahjahan, R. A. (2005). “Spirituality in the academy: Reclaiming from the margins and evoking a transformative way of knowing the world”. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 18 (6): 685–711. doi:10.1080/09518390500298188. 
  • Shahjahan, R.A. (2010). “Toward a spiritual praxis: The role of spirituality among faculty of color teaching for social justice”. The Review of Higher Education 33 (4): 473–512. doi:10.1353/rhe.0.0166. 
  • Sheldrake, Philip (1998). Spirituality and history: Questions of interpretation and method. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis. ISBN 1-57075-203-6. http://www.amazon.com/Spirituality-History-Questions-Interpretation-Method/dp/1570752036/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310081301&sr=1-1. 
  • Steiner, Rudolf, How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation. New York: Anthroposophic Press, (1904) 1994. ISBN 0-88010-372-8
  • Steiner, Rudolf, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man. London: Rudolf Steiner Press, (1904) 1994
  • Spenard, Michael (April 11, 2011) “Dueling with Dualism: the forlorn quest for the immaterial soul”, essay. An historical account of mind body duality and a comprehensive conceptual and empirical critique on the position. ISBN 978-0-578-08288-2
  • Thompson, William Irwin, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Origins of Culture (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981).
  • Wapnick, Kenneth, The Message of A Course in Miracles. Roscoe, NY: Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1997, ISBN 0-933291-25-6.
  • Wakefield, Gordon S.(ed.), A Dictionary of Christian Spirituality. London: SCM, 1983.
  • Wilkinson, Tony, The Lost Art of Being Happy - Spirituality for Sceptics Findhorn Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-84409-116-4
  • Zagano, Phyllis Twentieth-Century Apostles: Contemporary Spirituality in Action (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999)
  • Zagano, Phyllis “Woman to Woman: An Anthology of Women’s Spiritualities (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical PRess) 1993.
  • Zajonc, Arthur, The New Physics and Cosmology Dialogues with the Dalai Lama. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004,ISBN 0-19-515994-2.

External links

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Science

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This article is about the general term, particularly as it refers to experimental sciences. For the specific topics of study by scientists, see Natural science. For other uses, see Science (disambiguation).

Astronomy became much more accurate after Tycho Brahe devised his scientific instruments, before the invention of the telescope. Brahe’s observations were the basis for Kepler’s laws.

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Science (from Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge”) is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.[1] In an older and closely related meaning (found, for example, in Aristotle), “science” refers to the body of reliable knowledge itself, of the type that can be logically and rationally explained (see History and philosophy below).[2] Since classical antiquity science as a type of knowledge was closely linked to philosophy. In the early modern era the words “science” and “philosophy” were sometimes used interchangeably in the English language. By the 17th century, natural philosophy (which is today called “natural science“) was considered a separate branch of philosophy.[3] However, “science” continued to be used in a broad sense denoting reliable knowledge about a topic, in the same way it is still used in modern terms such as library science or political science.

In modern use, “science” more often refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not only the knowledge itself. It is “often treated as synonymous with ‘natural and physical science’, and thus restricted to those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use.”[4] This narrower sense of “science” developed as scientists such as Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton began formulating laws of nature such as Newton’s laws of motion. In this period it became more common to refer to natural philosophy as “natural science”. Over the course of the 19th century, the word “science” became increasingly associated with scientific method, a disciplined way to study the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology. It is in the 19th century also that the term scientist was created by the naturalist-theologian William Whewell to distinguish those who sought knowledge on nature from those who sought knowledge on other disciplines. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the origin of the word “scientist” to 1834. This sometimes left the study of human thought and society in a linguistic limbo, which was resolved by classifying these areas of academic study as social science. Similarly, several other major areas of disciplined study and knowledge exist today under the general rubric of “science”, such as formal science and applied science.

Contents

History and philosophy

History

Main article: History of science

Both Aristotle and Kuan Tzu (4th C. BCE), in an example of simultaneous scientific discovery, mention that some marine animals were subject to a lunar cycle, and increase and decrease in size with the waxing and waning of the moon. Aristotle was referring specifically to the sea urchin, pictured above.[5]

Science in a broad sense existed before the modern era, and in many historical civilizations, but modern science is so distinct in its approach and successful in its results that it now defines what science is in the strictest sense of the term. Much earlier than the modern era, another important turning point was the development of the classical natural philosophy in the ancient Greek-speaking world.

Pre-philosophical

Science in its original sense is a word for a type of knowledge (Latin scientia, Ancient Greek epistemē), rather than a specialized word for the pursuit of such knowledge. In particular it is one of the types of knowledge which people can communicate to each other and share. For example, knowledge about the working of natural things was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of complex abstract thinking, as shown by the construction of complex calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants edible, and buildings such as the pyramids. However no consistent distinction was made between knowledge of such things which are true in every community, and other types of communal knowledge such as mythologies and legal systems.

Philosophical study of nature

See also: Nature (philosophy)

Before the invention or discovery of the concept of “nature” (Ancient Greek phusis), by the Pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the natural “way” in which a plant grows,[6] and the “way” in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god. For this reason it is claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense, and also the first people to clearly distinguish “nature” and “convention”.[7] Science was therefore distinguished as the knowledge of nature, and the things which are true for every community, and the name of the specialized pursuit of such knowledge was philosophy — the realm of the first philosopher-physicists. They were mainly speculators or theorists, particularly interested in astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate nature (artifice or technology, Greek technē) was seen by classical scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans.[8]

Philosophical turn to human things

A major turning point in the history of early philosophical science was the controversial but successful attempt by Socrates to apply philosophy to the study of human things, including human nature, the nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. He criticized the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative, and lacking in self-criticism. He was particularly concerned that some of the early physicists treated nature as if it could be assumed that it had no intelligent order, explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter.

The study of human things had been the realm of mythology and tradition, and Socrates was executed. Aristotle later created a less controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy, which was teleological, and human-centred. He rejected many of the conclusions of earlier scientists. For example in his physics the sun goes around the earth, and many things have it as part of their nature that they are for humans. Each thing has a formal cause and final cause and a role in the rational cosmic order. Motion and change is described as the actualization of potentials already in things, according to what types of things they are. While the Socratics insisted that philosophy should be used to consider the practical question of the best way to live for a human being, they did not argue for any other types of applied science.

Aristotle maintained the sharp distinction between science and the practical knowledge of artisans, treating theoretical speculation as the highest type of human activity, practical thinking about good living as something less lofty, and the knowledge of artisans as something only suitable for the lower classes. In contrast to modern science, Aristotle’s influential emphasis was upon the “theoretical” steps of deducing universal rules from raw data, and did not treat the gathering of experience and raw data as part of science itself.[9]

Medieval science

During late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the Aristotelian approach to inquiries on natural phenomenon was used. Some ancient knowledge was lost, or in some cases kept in obscurity, during the fall of the Roman Empire and periodic political struggles. However, the general fields of science, or Natural Philosophy as it was called, and much of the general knowledge from the ancient world remained preserved though the works of the early encyclopedists like Isidore of Seville. During the early medieval period, Syrian Christians from Eastern Europe such as Nestorians and Monophysites were the ones that translated much of the important Greek science texts from Greek to Syriac and the later on they translated many of the works into Arabic and other languages under Islamic rule.[10] This was a major line of transmission for the development of Islamic science which provided much of the activity during the early medieval period. In the later medieval period, Europeans recovered some ancient knowledge by translations of texts and they built their work upon the knowledge of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid, and others works. In Europe, men like Roger Bacon learned Arabic and Hebrew and argued for more experimental science. By the late Middle Ages, a synthesis of Catholicism and Aristotelianism known as Scholasticism was flourishing in Western Europe, which had become a new geographic center of science.

Renaissance, and early modern science

Main article: Scientific revolution

Galileo is considered one of the fathers of modern science.[11]

By the late Middle Ages, especially in Italy there was an influx of texts and scholars from the collapsing Byzantine empire. Copernicus formulated a heliocentric model of the solar system unlike the geocentric model of Ptolemy’s Almagest. All aspects of scholasticism were criticized in the 15th and 16th centuries; one author who was notoriously persecuted was Galileo, who made innovative use of experiment and mathematics. However the persecution began after Pope Urban VIII blessed Galileo to write about the Copernican system. Galileo had used arguments from the Pope and put them in the voice of the simpleton in the work “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” which caused great offense to him [12]

In Northern Europe, the new technology of the printing press was widely used to publish many arguments including some that disagreed with church dogma. René Descartes and Francis Bacon published philosophical arguments in favor of a new type of non-Aristotelian science. Descartes argued that mathematics could be used in order to study nature, as Galileo had done, and Bacon emphasized the importance of experiment over contemplation. Bacon also argued that science should aim for the first time at practical inventions for the improvement of all human life.

Bacon questioned the Aristotelian concepts of formal cause and final cause, and promoted the idea that science should study the laws of “simple” natures, such as heat, rather than assuming that there is any specific nature, or “formal cause“, of each complex type of thing. This new modern science began to see itself as describing “laws of nature“. This updated approach to studies in nature was seen as mechanistic.

Age of Enlightenment

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the project of modernity, as had been promoted by Bacon and Descartes, led to rapid scientific advance and the successful development of a new type of natural science, mathematical, methodically experimental, and deliberately innovative. Newton and Leibniz succeeded in developing a new physics, now referred to as Newtonian physics, which could be confirmed by experiment and explained in mathematics. Leibniz also incorporated terms from Aristotelian physics, but now being used in a new non-teleological way, for example “energy” and “potential“. But in the style of Bacon, he assumed that different types of things all work according to the same general laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes for each type of thing.

It is, during this period that the word science gradually became more commonly used to refer to the pursuit of a type of knowledge, and especially knowledge of nature — coming close in meaning to the old term “natural philosophy“.

19th century

Leslie - physicsFrancis Baily - astronomerPlayfair - UniformitarianismRutherford - NitrogenDollond - OpticsYoung - modulus etcBrown - Brownian motionGilbert - Royal Society presidentBanks - BotanistKater - measured gravity??Howard - Chemical EngineerDundonald - propellorsWilliam Allen - PharmacistHenry - Gas lawWollaston - Palladium and RhodiumHatchett - NiobiumDavy - ChemistMaudslay - modern latheBentham - machinery?Rumford - thermodynamicsMurdock - sun and planet gearRennie - Docks, canals & bridgesJessop - CanalsMylne - Blackfriars bridgeCongreve - rocketsDonkin - engineerHenry Fourdrinier - Paper making machineThomson - atomsWilliam Symington - first steam boatMiller - steam boatNasmyth - painter and scientistNasmyth2Bramah - HydraulicsTrevithickHerschel - UranusMaskelyne - Astronomer RoyalJenner - Smallpox vaccineCavendishDalton - atomsBrunel - Civil EngineerBoulton - SteamHuddart - Rope machineWatt - Steam engineTelfordCrompton - spinning machineTennant - Industrial ChemistCartwright - Power loomRonalds - Electric telegraphStanhope - InventorUse your cursor to explore (or Click icon to enlarge)

Distinguished Men of Science.[13] Use a cursor to see who is who.[14]

Both John Herschel and William Whewell systematised methodology: the latter coined the term scientist. When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species he established descent with modification as the prevailing evolutionary explanation of biological complexity. His theory of natural selection provided a natural explanation of how species originated, but this only gained wide acceptance a century later. John Dalton developed the idea of atoms. The laws of Thermodynamics and the electromagnetic theory were also established in the 19th century, which raised new questions which could not easily be answered using Newton’s framework.

20th century

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and the development of quantum mechanics led to the replacement of Newtonian physics with a new physics which contains two parts, that describe different types of events in nature. The extensive use of scientific innovation during the wars of this century, led to the space race and widespread public appreciation of the importance of modern science.

Philosophy of science

Main article: Philosophy of science
Further information: Intersubjective verifiability and Subjunctive possibility

Working scientists usually take for granted a set of basic assumptions that are needed to justify a scientific method: (1) that there is an objective reality shared by all rational observers; (2) that this objective reality is governed by natural laws; (3) that these laws can be discovered by means of systematic observation and experimentation. Philosophy of science seeks a deep understanding of what these underlying assumptions mean and whether they are valid. Most contributions to the philosophy of science have come from philosophers, who frequently view the beliefs of most scientists as superficial or naive—thus there is often a degree of antagonism between working scientists and philosophers of science.


John Locke

The belief that all observers share a common reality is known as realism. It can be contrasted with anti-realism, the belief that there is no valid concept of absolute truth such that things that are true for one observer are true for all observers. The most commonly defended form of anti-realism is idealism, the belief that the mind or spirit is the most basic essence, and that each mind generates its own reality.[15] In an idealistic world-view, what is true for one mind need not be true for other minds.

There are different schools of thought in philosophy of science. The most popular position is empiricism, which claims that knowledge is created by a process involving observation and that scientific theories are the result of generalizations from such observations.[16] Empiricism generally encompasses inductivism, a position that tries to explain the way general theories can be justified by the finite number of observations humans can make and the hence finite amount of empirical evidence available to confirm scientific theories. This is necessary because the number of predictions those theories make is infinite, which means that they cannot be known from the finite amount of evidence using deductive logic only. Many versions of empiricism exist, with the predominant ones being bayesianism[17] and the hypothetico-deductive method.[18]

Empiricism has stood in contrast to rationalism, the position originally associated with Descartes, which holds that knowledge is created by the human intellect, not by observation.[19] A significant twentieth century version of rationalism is critical rationalism, first defined by Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper. Popper rejected the way that empiricism describes the connection between theory and observation. He claimed that theories are not generated by observation, but that observation is made in the light of theories and that the only way a theory can be affected by observation is when it comes in conflict with it.[20] Popper proposed falsifiability as the landmark of scientific theories, and falsification as the empirical method, to replace verifiability[21] and induction by purely deductive notions.[22] Popper further claimed that there is actually only one universal method, and that this method is not specific to science: The negative method of criticism, trial and error.[23] It covers all products of the human mind, including science, mathematics, philosophy, and art [24]

Another approach, instrumentalism, colloquially termed “shut up and calculate”, emphasizes the utility of theories as instruments for explaining and predicting phenomena.[25] It claims that scientific theories are black boxes with only their input (initial conditions) and output (predictions) being relevant. Consequences, notions and logical structure of the theories are claimed to be something that should simply be ignored and that scientists shouldn’t make a fuss about (see interpretations of quantum mechanics).

Finally, another approach often cited in debates of scientific skepticism against controversial movements like “scientific creationism“, is methodological naturalism. Its main point is that a difference between natural and supernatural explanations should be made, and that science should be restricted methodologically to natural explanations.[26] That the restriction is merely methodological (rather than ontological) means that science should not consider supernatural explanations itself, but should not claim them to be wrong either. Instead, supernatural explanations should be left a matter of personal belief outside the scope of science. Methodological naturalism maintains that proper science requires strict adherence to empirical study and independent verification as a process for properly developing and evaluating explanations for observable phenomena.[27] The absence of these standards, arguments from authority, biased observational studies and other common fallacies are frequently cited by supporters of methodological naturalism as criteria for the dubious claims they criticize not to be true science.

Basic and applied research

Although some scientific research is applied research into specific problems, a great deal of our understanding comes from the curiosity-driven undertaking of basic research. This leads to options for technological advance that were not planned or sometimes even imaginable. This point was made by Michael Faraday when, allegedly in response to the question “what is the use of basic research?” he responded “Sir, what is the use of a new-born child?”.[28] For example, research into the effects of red light on the human eye’s rod cells did not seem to have any practical purpose; eventually, the discovery that our night vision is not troubled by red light would lead search and rescue teams (among others) to adopt red light in the cockpits of jets and helicopters.[29] In a nutshell: Basic research is the search for knowledge. Applied research is the search for solutions to practical problems using this knowledge. Finally, even basic research can take unexpected turns, and there is some sense in which the scientific method is built to harness luck.

Experimentation and hypothesizing


DNA determines the genetic structure of all known life

Based on observations of a phenomenon, scientists may generate a model. This is an attempt to describe or depict the phenomenon in terms of a logical, physical or mathematical representation. As empirical evidence is gathered, scientists can suggest a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon.[30] Hypotheses may be formulated using principles such as parsimony (also known as “Occam’s Razor“) and are generally expected to seek consilience—fitting well with other accepted facts related to the phenomena.[31] This new explanation is used to make falsifiable predictions that are testable by experiment or observation. When a hypothesis proves unsatisfactory, it is either modified or discarded.[32] Experimentation is especially important in science to help establish causational relationships (to avoid the correlation fallacy). Operationalization also plays an important role in coordinating research in/across different fields.

Once a hypothesis has survived testing, it may become adopted into the framework of a scientific theory. This is a logically reasoned, self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of certain natural phenomena. A theory typically describes the behavior of much broader sets of phenomena than a hypothesis; commonly, a large number of hypotheses can be logically bound together by a single theory. Thus a theory is a hypothesis explaining various other hypotheses. In that vein, theories are formulated according to most of the same scientific principles as hypotheses.

While performing experiments, scientists may have a preference for one outcome over another, and so it is important to ensure that science as a whole can eliminate this bias.[33][34] This can be achieved by careful experimental design, transparency, and a thorough peer review process of the experimental results as well as any conclusions.[35][36] After the results of an experiment are announced or published, it is normal practice for independent researchers to double-check how the research was performed, and to follow up by performing similar experiments to determine how dependable the results might be.[37]

Certainty and science

A scientific theory is empirical, and is always open to falsification if new evidence is presented. That is, no theory is ever considered strictly certain as science accepts the concept of fallibilism. The philosopher of science Karl Popper sharply distinguishes truth from certainty. He writes that scientific knowledge “consists in the search for truth”, but it “is not the search for certainty … All human knowledge is fallible and therefore uncertain.”[38]


Although science values legitimate doubt, The Flat Earth Society is still widely regarded as an example of taking skepticism too far

New scientific knowledge very rarely results in vast changes in our understanding. According to psychologist Keith Stanovich, it may be the media’s overuse of words like “breakthrough” that leads the public to imagine that science is constantly proving everything it thought was true to be false.[39] While there are such famous cases as the theory of relativity that required a complete reconceptualization, these are extreme exceptions. Knowledge in science is gained by a gradual synthesis of information from different experiments, by various researchers, across different domains of science; it is more like a climb than a leap.[40] Theories vary in the extent to which they have been tested and verified, as well as their acceptance in the scientific community.[41] For example, heliocentric theory, the theory of evolution, and germ theory still bear the name “theory” even though, in practice, they are considered factual.[42]

Philosopher Barry Stroud adds that, although the best definition for “knowledge” is contested, being skeptical and entertaining the possibility that one is incorrect is compatible with being correct. Ironically then, the scientist adhering to proper scientific method will doubt themselves even once they possess the truth.[43] The fallibilist C. S. Peirce argued that inquiry is the struggle to resolve actual doubt and that merely quarrelsome, verbal, or hyperbolic doubt is fruitless[44]—but also that the inquirer should try to attain genuine doubt rather than resting uncritically on common sense.[45] He held that the successful sciences trust, not to any single chain of inference (no stronger than its weakest link), but to the cable of multiple and various arguments intimately connected.[46]

Stanovich also asserts that science avoids searching for a “magic bullet”; it avoids the single-cause fallacy. This means a scientist would not ask merely “What is the cause of…”, but rather “What are the most significant causes of…”. This is especially the case in the more macroscopic fields of science (e.g. psychology, cosmology).[47] Of course, research often analyzes few factors at once, but these are always added to the long list of factors that are most important to consider.[47] For example: knowing the details of only a person’s genetics, or their history and upbringing, or the current situation may not explain a behaviour, but a deep understanding of all these variables combined can be very predictive.

Scientific practice


An instrument for measuring the angle observed between two celestial bodies, designed by Tycho Brahe. Brahe’s instrument for measuring angle was used as part of a more complex instrument, shown above.

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” —Francis Bacon (1605) The Advancement of Learning, Book 1, v, 8

A skeptical point of view, demanding a method of proof, was the practical position taken as early as 1000 years ago, with Alhazen, Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, through Bacon (1605), and C. S. Peirce (1839–1914), who note that a community will then spring up to address these points of uncertainty. The methods of inquiry into a problem have been known for thousands of years,[48] and extend beyond theory to practice. The use of measurements, for example, are a practical approach to settle disputes in the community.

John Ziman points out that intersubjective pattern recognition is fundamental to the creation of all scientific knowledge.[49] Ziman shows how scientists can identify patterns to each other across centuries: Needham 1954 (illustration facing page 164) shows how today’s trained Western botanist can identify Artemisia alba from images taken from a 16th c. Chinese pharmacopia,[50] and Ziman refers to this ability as ‘perceptual consensibility’.[51] Ziman then makes consensibility, leading to consensus, the touchstone of reliable knowledge.[52]

Measurement

Main article: Measurement

Measurement is often used in science to make definitive comparisons and reduce confusion. Even in cases of clear qualitative difference, increased precision through measurement is often preferred in order to aid in replication. For example, different colors may be reported based on wavelengths of light, instead of vague (qualitative) terms such as “green” and “blue” which are often interpreted differently by different people.

Measurements are most commonly made in the SI system, which contains seven fundamental units: kilogram, meter, candela, second, ampere, kelvin, and mole. Six of these units are artifact-free (defined without reference to a particular physical object which serves as a standard); the definition of one remaining unit, the kilogram is still embodied in an artifact which rests at the BIPM outside Paris. Eventually, it is hoped that new SI definitions will be uniformly artifact-free.

Artifact-free definitions fix measurements at an exact value related to a physical constant or other invariable phenomenon in nature, in contrast to standard artifacts which can be damaged or otherwise change slowly over time. Instead, the measurement unit can only ever change through increased accuracy in determining the value of the constant it is tied to.


The seven base units in the SI system. Arrows point from units to those that depend on them; as the accuracy of the former increase, so will the accuracy of the latter.

The first proposal to tie an SI base unit to an experimental standard independent of fiat was by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914),[53] who proposed to define the meter in terms of the wavelength of a spectral line.[54] This directly influenced the Michelson-Morley experiment; Michelson and Morley cite Peirce, and improve on his method.[55]

SI definitions

See also: New SI definitions
Base quantity Base unit Symbol Current SI constants New SI constants (proposed)
time second s hyperfine splitting in Cesium-133 same as current SI
length meter m speed of light in vacuum, c same as current SI
mass kilogram kg mass of International Prototype Kilogram (IPK) Planck’s constant, h
electric current ampere A permeability of free space, permittivity of free space charge of the electron, e
temperature kelvin K triple point of water, absolute zero Boltzmann’s constant, k
amount of substance mole mol molar mass of Carbon-12 Avogadro constant NA
luminous intensity candela cd luminous efficacy of a 540 THz source same as current SI

[56]

Mathematics and formal sciences

Main article: Mathematics

Data from the famous Michelson–Morley experiment

Mathematics is essential to the sciences. One important function of mathematics in science is the role it plays in the expression of scientific models. Observing and collecting measurements, as well as hypothesizing and predicting, often require extensive use of mathematics. Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus, for example, are all essential to physics. Virtually every branch of mathematics has applications in science, including “pure” areas such as number theory and topology.

Statistical methods, which are mathematical techniques for summarizing and analyzing data, allow scientists to assess the level of reliability and the range of variation in experimental results. Statistical analysis plays a fundamental role in many areas of both the natural sciences and social sciences.

Computational science applies computing power to simulate real-world situations, enabling a better understanding of scientific problems than formal mathematics alone can achieve. According to the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, computation is now as important as theory and experiment in advancing scientific knowledge.[57]

Whether mathematics itself is properly classified as science has been a matter of some debate. Some thinkers see mathematicians as scientists, regarding physical experiments as inessential or mathematical proofs as equivalent to experiments. Others do not see mathematics as a science, since it does not require an experimental test of its theories and hypotheses. Mathematical theorems and formulas are obtained by logical derivations which presume axiomatic systems, rather than the combination of empirical observation and logical reasoning that has come to be known as scientific method. In general, mathematics is classified as formal science, while natural and social sciences are classified as empirical sciences.[58]

Scientific method

Main article: Scientific method

A scientific method seeks to explain the events of nature in a reproducible way.[59] An explanatory thought experiment or hypothesis is put forward, as explanation, from which stem predictions. The predictions are to be posted before a confirming experiment or observation is sought, as proof that no tampering has occurred. Disproof of a prediction is evidence of progress.[60][61] This is done partly through observation of natural phenomena, but also through experimentation, that tries to simulate natural events under controlled conditions, as appropriate to the discipline (in the observational sciences, such as astronomy or geology, a predicted observation might take the place of a controlled experiment). Taken in its entirety, a scientific method allows for highly creative problem solving while minimizing any effects of subjective bias on the part of its users (namely the confirmation bias).[62]

In the nineteenth century, the measurement of Earth’s gravity was primarily dependent on pendulums for gravimetric surveys. An improved pendulum, designed by Friedrich Bessel, was manufactured by Repsold and Sons, Hamburg, Germany. The American C.S. Peirce was tasked with gravimetric research by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Peirce developed a theory of the systematic errors in the mount of the Repsold pendulum. He was asked to present his theory for improving pendulums to a Special Committee of the International Geodetic Association. While underway to a conference of the IGA in Europe, September 1877, Peirce wrote an essay in French on scientific method, “How to Make Our Ideas Clear”[63] and translated “The Fixation of Belief”[64] into French.[65] In these essays, he notes that our beliefs clash with real life, causing what Peirce denotes as the “irritation of doubt”, for which he then lists multiple methods of coping, among them, scientific method.[66]

“Model-making, the imaginative and logical steps which precede the experiment, may be judged the most important part of scientific method because skill and insight in these matters are rare. Without them we do not know what experiment to do. But it is the experiment which provides the raw material for scientific theory. Scientific theory cannot be built directly from the conclusions of conceptual models.” —Herbert George Andrewartha (1907-92), Australian zoologist and entomologist, Introduction to the study of animal population 1961, 181[67]

Scientific community


Johannes Hevelius and wife Elisabetha making observations, 1673. The Royal Society numbers Hevelius among its first foreign members.


The Meissner effect causes a magnet to levitate above a superconductor

Main article: Scientific community

The scientific community is the group of all interacting scientists. It includes many “sub-communities” working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional activities are also significant.

Branches and fields

Main article: Branches of science

Scientific fields are commonly divided into two major groups: natural sciences, which study natural phenomena (including biological life), and social sciences, which study human behavior and societies. These groupings are empirical sciences, which means the knowledge must be based on observable phenomena and capable of being tested for its validity by other researchers working under the same conditions.[68] There are also related disciplines that are grouped into interdisciplinary and applied sciences, such as engineering and medicine. Within these categories are specialized scientific fields that can include parts of other scientific disciplines but often possess their own terminology and expertise.[69]

Mathematics, which is classified as a formal science,[70][71] has both similarities and differences with the empirical sciences (the natural and social sciences). It is similar to empirical sciences in that it involves an objective, careful and systematic study of an area of knowledge; it is different because of its method of verifying its knowledge, using a priori rather than empirical methods.[72] The formal sciences, which also include statistics and logic, are vital to the empirical sciences. Major advances in formal science have often led to major advances in the empirical sciences. The formal sciences are essential in the formation of hypotheses, theories, and laws,[73] both in discovering and describing how things work (natural sciences) and how people think and act (social sciences).

The word field has a technical meaning in physics, as occupying space (see Field (physics), which uses the word spacetime, rather than space); that is the reason that a branch of science is taken as the meaning of field. Science divides into categories of specialized expertise, each typically embodying their own terminology and nomenclature. Each field will commonly be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer reviewed research will be published.

Institutions


Louis XIV visiting the Académie des sciences in 1671

Learned societies for the communication and promotion of scientific thought and experimentation have existed since the Renaissance period.[74] The oldest surviving institution is the Italian Accademia dei Lincei which was established in 1603.[75] The respective National Academies of Science are distinguished institutions that exist in a number of countries, beginning with the British Royal Society in 1660[76] and the French Académie des Sciences in 1666.[77]

International scientific organizations, such as the International Council for Science, have since been formed to promote cooperation between the scientific communities of different nations. More recently, influential government agencies have been created to support scientific research, including the National Science Foundation in the U.S.

Other prominent organizations include the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina, the academies of science of many nations, CSIRO in Australia, Centre national de la recherche scientifique in France, Max Planck Society and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in Germany, and in Spain, CSIC.

Literature

Main article: Scientific literature

An enormous range of scientific literature is published.[78] Scientific journals communicate and document the results of research carried out in universities and various other research institutions, serving as an archival record of science. The first scientific journals, Journal des Sçavans followed by the Philosophical Transactions, began publication in 1665. Since that time the total number of active periodicals has steadily increased. As of 1981, one estimate for the number of scientific and technical journals in publication was 11,500.[79] The United States National Library of Medicine currently indexes 5,516 journals that contain articles on topics related to the life sciences. Although the journals are in 39 languages, 91 percent of the indexed articles are published in English.[80]

Most scientific journals cover a single scientific field and publish the research within that field; the research is normally expressed in the form of a scientific paper. Science has become so pervasive in modern societies that it is generally considered necessary to communicate the achievements, news, and ambitions of scientists to a wider populace.

Science magazines such as New Scientist, Science & Vie and Scientific American cater to the needs of a much wider readership and provide a non-technical summary of popular areas of research, including notable discoveries and advances in certain fields of research. Science books engage the interest of many more people. Tangentially, the science fiction genre, primarily fantastic in nature, engages the public imagination and transmits the ideas, if not the methods, of science.

Recent efforts to intensify or develop links between science and non-scientific disciplines such as Literature or, more specifically, Poetry, include the Creative Writing Science resource developed through the Royal Literary Fund.[81]

Science and society

Women in science

Main article: Women in science

A scientist in her lab coat.

Science is largely a male-dominated field, with notable exceptions.[82] Evidence suggests that this is due to stereotypes (e.g. science as “manly”) as well as self-fulfilling prophecies.[83][84] Experiments have shown that parents challenge and explain more to boys than girls, asking them to reflect more deeply and logically.[85] Physicist Evelyn Fox Keller argues that science may suffer for its manly stereotypes when ego and competitiveness obstruct progress, since these tendencies prevent collaboration and sharing of information.[86]

Calls for certainty in politics

As described in Certainty and science above: “no theory is ever considered strictly certain as science accepts the concept of fallibilism.” Researchers from the United States and Canada write about a rhetorical technique focussed on shifting the burden of proof in an argument: the rhetoric involves a very public call for absolute certainty from one side of the debate.[87] For instance, laws that would control cigarette smoking were combated by lobby groups emphasizing that the evidence connecting smoking to cancer was not certain. The evidence that did exist was thus trivialized.[87] The researchers call this a SCAM (Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method), and maintain that what is really needed is a balanced approach to science; an approach that admits scientific conclusions are always tentative. This means carefully considering the risks of both Type 1 and Type 2 errors in a situation (e.g. all the risks of over-reaction, but also the risks of under-reaction). Certainty, it should be clear, will not exist on either side of the debate. The authors conclude that politicians and lobby groups are too often able to make “successful efforts to argue for full ’scientific certainty’ before a regulation can be said to be ‘justified’ — and that, in short, is a SCAM.”[87]

Science policy

Main articles: Science policy, History of science policy, Funding of science, and Economics of science

Science policy is an area of public policy concerned with the policies that affect the conduct of the science and research enterprise, including research funding, often in pursuance of other national policy goals such as technological innovation to promote commercial product development, weapons development, health care and environmental monitoring. Science policy also refers to the act of applying scientific knowledge and consensus to the development of public policies. Science policy thus deals with the entire domain of issues that involve the natural sciences. Is accordance with public policy being concerned about the well-being of its citizens, science policy’s goal is to consider how science and technology can best serve the public.

State policy has influenced the funding of public works and science for thousands of years, dating at least from the time of the Mohists, who inspired the study of logic during the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, and the study of defensive fortifications during the Warring States Period in China. In Great Britain, governmental approval of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century recognized a scientific community which exists to this day. The professionalization of science, begun in the nineteenth century, was partly enabled by the creation of scientific organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, and State funding of universities of their respective nations. Public policy can directly affect the funding of capital equipment, intellectual infrastructure for industrial research, by providing tax incentives to those organizations that fund research. Vannevar Bush, director of the office of scientific research and development for the United States government, the forerunner of the National Science Foundation, wrote in July 1945 that “Science is a proper concern of government” [88]

Science and technology research is often funded through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most promising receive funding. Such processes, which are run by government, corporations or foundations, allocate scarce funds. Total research funding in most developed countries is between 1.5% and 3% of GDP.[89] In the OECD, around two-thirds of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 20% and 10% respectively by universities and government. The government funding proportion in certain industries is higher, and it dominates research in social science and humanities. Similarly, with some exceptions (e.g. biotechnology) government provides the bulk of the funds for basic scientific research. In commercial research and development, all but the most research-oriented corporations focus more heavily on near-term commercialisation possibilities rather than “blue-sky” ideas or technologies (such as nuclear fusion).

Pseudoscience, fringe science, and junk science

Main articles: Pseudoscience, Fringe science, Junk science, Cargo cult science, and Scientific misconduct

An area of study or speculation that masquerades as science in an attempt to claim a legitimacy that it would not otherwise be able to achieve is sometimes referred to as pseudoscience, fringe science, or “alternative science”.[90] Another term, junk science, is often used to describe scientific hypotheses or conclusions which, while perhaps legitimate in themselves, are believed to be used to support a position that is seen as not legitimately justified by the totality of evidence. Physicist Richard Feynman coined the term “cargo cult science” in reference to pursuits that have the formal trappings of science but lack “a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty” that allows their results to be rigorously evaluated.[91] Various types of commercial advertising, ranging from hype to fraud, may fall into these categories.

There also can be an element of political or ideological bias on all sides of such debates. Sometimes, research may be characterized as “bad science”, research that is well-intentioned but is seen as incorrect, obsolete, incomplete, or over-simplified expositions of scientific ideas. The term “scientific misconduct” refers to situations such as where researchers have intentionally misrepresented their published data or have purposely given credit for a discovery to the wrong person.[92]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of science

Philosophical criticisms

Historian Jacques Barzun termed science “a faith as fanatical as any in history” and warned against the use of scientific thought to suppress considerations of meaning as integral to human existence.[93] Many recent thinkers, such as Carolyn Merchant, Theodor Adorno and E. F. Schumacher considered that the 17th century scientific revolution shifted science from a focus on understanding nature, or wisdom, to a focus on manipulating nature, i.e. power, and that science’s emphasis on manipulating nature leads it inevitably to manipulate people, as well.[94] Science’s focus on quantitative measures has led to critiques that it is unable to recognize important qualitative aspects of the world.[94]

Philosopher of science Paul K Feyerabend advanced the idea of epistemological anarchism, which holds that there are no useful and exception-free methodological rules governing the progress of science or the growth of knowledge, and that the idea that science can or should operate according to universal and fixed rules is unrealistic, pernicious and detrimental to science itself.[95] Feyerabend advocates treating science as an ideology alongside others such as religion, magic and mythology, and considers the dominance of science in society authoritarian and unjustified. He also contended (along with Imre Lakatos) that the demarcation problem of distinguishing science from pseudoscience on objective grounds is not possible and thus fatal to the notion of science running according to fixed, universal rules.[95]

Feyerabend also criticized science for not having evidence for its own philosophical precepts. Particularly the notion of Uniformity of Law and the Uniformity of Process across time and space. “We have to realize that a unified theory of the physical world simply does not exist” says Feyerabend, “We have theories that work in restricted regions, we have purely formal attempts to condense them into a single formula, we have lots of unfounded claims (such as the claim that all of chemistry can be reduced to physics), phenomena that do not fit into the accepted framework are suppressed; in physics, which many scientists regard as the one really basic science, we have now at least three different points of view…without a promise of conceptual (and not only formal) unification”.[96]

Sociologist Stanley Aronowitz scrutinizes science for operating with the presumption that the only acceptable criticisms of science are those conducted within the methodological framework that science has set up for itself. That science insists that only those who have been inducted into its community, through means of training and credentials, are qualified to make these criticisms.[97] Aronowitz also alleges that while scientists consider it absurd that Fundamentalist Christianity uses biblical references to bolster their claim that the Bible is true, scientists pull the same tactic by using the tools of science to settle disputes concerning its own validity.[98]

Several academics have offered critiques concerning ethics in science. In Science and Ethics, for example, the philosopher Bernard Rollin examines the relevance of ethics to science, and argues in favor of making education in ethics part and parcel of scientific training.[99]

Fragmented view of world

Psychologist Carl Jung believed that though science attempted to understand all of nature, the experimental method imposed artificial and conditional questions that evoke equally artificial answers. Jung encouraged, instead of these ‘artificial’ methods, empirically testing the world in a holistic manner.[100] David Parkin compared the epistemological stance of science to that of divination.[101] He suggested that, to the degree that divination is an epistemologically specific means of gaining insight into a given question, science itself can be considered a form of divination that is framed from a Western view of the nature (and thus possible applications) of knowledge.

In a similar vein, Sixel saw the scientific viewpoint as limited in scope without being conscious of its own limitations, so that science could be correct (within its framework) and yet not true (because it failed to take into account larger contexts).[102]

Media perspectives

The mass media face a number of pressures that can prevent them from accurately depicting competing scientific claims in terms of their credibility within the scientific community as a whole. Determining how much weight to give different sides in a scientific debate may require considerable expertise regarding the matter.[103] Few journalists have real scientific knowledge, and even beat reporters who know a great deal about certain scientific issues may be ignorant about other scientific issues that they are suddenly asked to cover.[104][105]

Politics and public perception of science

See also: Politicization of science

Many issues damage the relationship of science to the media and the use of science and scientific arguments by politicians. As a very broad generalisation, many politicians seek certainties and facts whilst scientists typically offer probabilities and caveats. However, politicians’ ability to be heard in the mass media frequently distorts the scientific understanding by the public. Examples in Britain include the controversy over the MMR inoculation, and the 1988 forced resignation of a Government Minister, Edwina Currie for revealing the high probability that battery farmed eggs were contaminated with Salmonella.[106]

See also

Portal icon Science portal

Notes

  1. ^ “… modern science is a discovery as well as an invention. It was a discovery that nature generally acts regularly enough to be described by laws and even by mathematics; and required invention to devise the techniques, abstractions, apparatus, and organization for exhibiting the regularities and securing their law-like descriptions.” —p.vii, J. L. Heilbron, (2003, editor-in-chief) The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-511229-6
    • “science”. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Inc. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science. Retrieved 2011-10-16. “3 a: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena” 
  2. ^ Aristotle, ca. 4th century BCE “Nicomachean Ethics Book VI, and Metaphysics Book I:”. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker%20page%3D1139b.  “In general the sign of knowledge or ignorance is the ability to teach, and for this reason we hold that art rather than experience is scientific knowledge (epistemē); for the artists can teach, but the others cannot.” — Aristot. Met. 1.981b
  3. ^ Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), for example, is translated “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, and reflects the then-current use of the words “natural philosophy“, akin to “systematic study of nature”
  4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
  5. ^ Needham 1954, p. 150
  6. ^ See the quotation in Homer (8th c. BCE) Odyssey 10.302-3
  7. ^ “Progress or Return” in An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss. (Expanded version of Political Philosophy: Six Essays by Leo Strauss, 1975.) Ed. Hilail Gilden. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1989.
  8. ^ Strauss and Cropsey eds. History of Political Philosophy, Third edition, p.209.
  9. ^ “… [A] man knows a thing scientifically when he possesses a conviction arrived at in a certain way, and when the first principles on which that conviction rests are known to him with certainty—for unless he is more certain of his first principles than of the conclusion drawn from them he will only possess the knowledge in question accidentally.” — Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 6 (H. Rackham, ed.) Aristot. Nic. Eth. 1139b
  10. ^ Grant, Edward (2007). A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. pp. 62-67. ISBN 978-0-521-68957-1. 
  11. ^ “Galileo and the Birth of Modern Science, by Stephen Hawking, American Heritage’s Invention & Technology, Spring 2009, Vol. 24, No. 1, p. 36
  12. ^ “Galileo Project - Pope Urban VIII Biography”. http://galileo.rice.edu/gal/urban.html. 
  13. ^ Engraving after ‘Men of Science Living in 1807-8′, John Gilbert engraved by George Zobel and William Walker, ref. NPG 1075a, National Portrait Gallery, London, accessed February 2010
  14. ^ Smith, HM (May 1941). “Eminent men of science living in 1807-8″. J. Chem. Educ 18 (5): 203. doi:10.1021/ed018p203. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed018p203. 
  15. ^ This realization is the topic of intersubjective verifiability, as recounted, for example, by Max Born (1949, 1965) Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance, who points out that all knowledge, including natural or social science, is also subjective. Page 162: “Thus it dawned upon me that fundamentally everything is subjective, everything without exception. That was a shock.”
  16. ^ “…[T]he logical empiricists thought that the great aim of science was to discover and establish generalizations.” —Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 41
  17. ^ “Bayesianism tries to understand evidence using probability theory.” —Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 203
  18. ^ Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 236
  19. ^ Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 20
  20. ^ Godfrey-Smith 2003, pp. 63–7
  21. ^ Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 68
  22. ^ Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 69
  23. ^ Popper called this Conjecture and Refutation Godfrey-Smith 2003, pp. 117–8
  24. ^ Karl Popper: Objective Knowledge (1972)
  25. ^ Newton-Smith, W. H. (1994). The Rationality of Science. London: Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 0-7100-0913-5. 
  26. ^ Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 151 credits Willard Van Orman Quine (1969) “Epistemology Naturalized” Ontological Relativity and Other Essays New York: Columbia University Press, as well as John Dewey, with the basic ideas of naturalism — Naturalized Epistemology, but Godfrey-Smith diverges from Quine’s position: according to Godfrey-Smith, “A naturalist can think that science can contribute to answers to philosophical questions, without thinking that philosophical questions can be replaced by science questions.”.
  27. ^ Brugger, E. Christian (2004). “Casebeer, William D. Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition”. The Review of Metaphysics 58 (2). 
  28. ^ “To Live at All Is Miracle Enough — Richard Dawkins”. RichardDawkins.net. 2006-05-10. http://richarddawkins.net/articles/91. Retrieved 2012-02-05. 
  29. ^ Stanovich 2007, pp. 106–110
  30. ^ Nola & Irzik 2005, pp. 199–201.
  31. ^ Wilson, Edward (1999), Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, New York: Vintage, ISBN 0-679-76867-X 
  32. ^ Nola & Irzik 2005, p. 208.
  33. ^ van Gelder, Tim (1999). “”Heads I win, tails you lose”: A Foray Into the Psychology of Philosophy” (PDF). University of Melbourne. Archived from the original on 2008-04-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20080409054240/http://www.philosophy.unimelb.edu.au/tgelder/papers/HeadsIWin.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
  34. ^ Pease, Craig (September 6, 2006). “Chapter 23. Deliberate bias: Conflict creates bad science”. Science for Business, Law and Journalism. Vermont Law School. Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100619154617/http://law-and-science.net/Science4BLJ/Scientific_Method/Deliberate.bias/Text.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
  35. ^ Shatz, David (2004). Peer Review: A Critical Inquiry. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1434-X. OCLC 54989960. 
  36. ^ Krimsky, Sheldon (2003). Science in the Private Interest: Has the Lure of Profits Corrupted the Virtue of Biomedical Research. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1479-X. OCLC 185926306. 
  37. ^ Bulger, Ruth Ellen; Heitman, Elizabeth; Reiser, Stanley Joel (2002). The Ethical Dimensions of the Biological and Health Sciences (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00886-7. OCLC 47791316. 
  38. ^ Popper 1996, p. 4.
  39. ^ Stanovich 2007 pg 119–138
  40. ^ Stanovich 2007 pg 123
  41. ^ Fleck, Ludwik (1979). Trenn, Thaddeus J.; Merton, Robert K. eds. Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-25325-2.  Claims that before a specific fact “existed”, it had to be created as part of a social agreement within a community. Steven Shapin (1980) “A view of scientific thought” Science ccvii (7 Mar 1980) 1065-66 states “[To Fleck,] facts are invented, not discovered. Moreover, the appearance of scientific facts as discovered things is itself a social construction: a made thing. “
  42. ^ Dawkins, Richard; Coyne, Jerry (2005-09-02). “One side can be wrong”. The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/sep/01/schools.research. 
  43. ^ “Barry Stroud on Scepticism”. philosophy bites. 2007-12-16. http://philosophybites.com/2007/12/barry-stroud-on.html. Retrieved 2012-02-05. 
  44. ^ Peirce (1877), “The Fixation of Belief”, Popular Science Monthly, v. 12, pp. 1–15, see §IV on p. 6–7. Reprinted Collected Papers v. 5, paragraphs 358–87 (see 374–6), Writings v. 3, pp. 242–57 (see 247–8), Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 109–23 (see 114–15), and elsewhere.
  45. ^ Peirce (1905), “Issues of Pragmaticism”, The Monist, v. XV, n. 4, pp. 481–99, see “Character V” on p. 491. Reprinted in Collected Papers v. 5, paragraphs 438–63 (see 451), Essential Peirce v. 2, pp. 346–59 (see 353), and elsewhere.
  46. ^ Peirce (1868), “Some Consequences of Four Incapacities”, Journal of Speculative Philosophy v. 2, n. 3, pp. 140–57, see p. 141. Reprinted in Collected Papers, v. 5, paragraphs 264–317, Writings v. 2, pp. 211–42, Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 28–55, and elsewhere.
  47. ^ a b Stanovich 2007 pp 141–147
  48. ^ In mathematics, Plato’s Meno demonstrates that it is possible to know logical propositions, such as the Pythagorean theorem, and even to prove them, as cited by Crease 2009, pp. 35–41
  49. ^ Ziman cites Polanyi 1958 chapter 12, as referenced in Ziman 1978, p. 44
  50. ^ Ziman 1978, pp. 46–47
  51. ^ Ziman 1978, p. 46
  52. ^ Ziman 1978, p. 104.
  53. ^ Crease 2011, pp. 182–4
  54. ^ C.S. Peirce (July 1879) “Note on the Progress of Experiments for Comparing a Wave-length with a Metre” American Journal of Science, as referenced by Crease 2011, p. 203
  55. ^ Crease 2011, p. 203
  56. ^ Crease 2011, p. 261
  57. ^ Graduate Education for Computational Science and Engineering, SIAM Working Group on CSE Education. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  58. ^ Bunge, Mario Augusto (1998). Philosophy of Science: From Problem to Theory. Transaction Publishers. p. 24. ISBN 0-7658-0413-1. 
  59. ^ di Francia 1976, p. 13: “The amazing point is that for the first time since the discovery of mathematics, a method has been introduced, the results of which have an intersubjective value!” (Author’s punctuation)
  60. ^ di Francia 1976, pp. 4–5: “One learns in a laboratory; one learns how to make experiments only by experimenting, and one learns how to work with his hands only by using them. The first and fundamental form of experimentation in physics is to teach young people to work with their hands. Then they should be taken into a laboratory and and taught to work with measuring instruments — each student carrying out real experiments in physics. This form of teaching is indispensable and cannot be read in a book.”
  61. ^ Fara 2009, p. 204: “Whatever their discipline, scientists claimed to share a common scientific method that … distinguished them from non-scientists.”
  62. ^ Backer, Patricia Ryaby (October 29, 2004). “What is the scientific method?”. San Jose State University. http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/scientific_method.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
  63. ^ C.S. Peirce (Jan 1879) “Comment rendre nos idées claires” Revue Philosophique pp.39-57
  64. ^ C.S. Peirce (Dec 1878) “Comment se fixe la croyance” Revue Philosophique pp.553-569
  65. ^ Gérard Deledalle (Spring 1981), “English and French Versions of C.S. Peirce’s “The Fixation of Belief” and “How to Make Our Ideas Clear” JSTOR: Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 17 (No.2) pp.141-152
  66. ^ Crease 2011, p. 199
  67. ^ William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (eds., 2005) Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-858409-1 Andrewartha, Herbert 13:6
  68. ^ Popper 2002, p. 20.
  69. ^ See: Editorial Staff (March 7, 2008). “Scientific Method: Relationships among Scientific Paradigms”. Seed magazine. http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/03/scientific_method_relationship.php. Retrieved 2007-09-12. 
  70. ^ “Marcus Tomalin (2006) ‘’Linguistics and the Formal Sciences'’”. Cambridge.org. doi:10.2277/0521854814. http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1173067/?site_locale=en_GB. Retrieved 2012-02-05. 
  71. ^ Benedikt Löwe (2002) “The Formal Sciences: Their Scope, Their Foundations, and Their Unity”
  72. ^ Popper 2002, pp. 10–11.
  73. ^ Popper 2002, pp. 79–82.
  74. ^ Parrott, Jim (August 9, 2007). “Chronicle for Societies Founded from 1323 to 1599″. Scholarly Societies Project. http://www.scholarly-societies.org/1599andearlier.html. Retrieved 2007-09-11. 
  75. ^ “Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei” (in Italian). 2006. http://positivamente.lincei.it/. Retrieved 2007-09-11. 
  76. ^ “History of the Royal Society”. The Royal Society. http://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/. Retrieved 2011-10-16. 
  77. ^ Meynell, G.G.. “The French Academy of Sciences, 1666–91: A reassessment of the French Académie royale des sciences under Colbert (1666–83) and Louvois (1683–91)”. http://www.haven.u-net.com/6text_7B2.htm#Appendix%202. Retrieved 2011-10-13. 
  78. ^ Ziman, J.M. (1980). “The proliferation of scientific literature: a natural process”. Science 208 (4442): 369–371. doi:10.1126/science.7367863. PMID 7367863. 
  79. ^ Subramanyam, Krishna; Subramanyam, Bhadriraju (1981). Scientific and Technical Information Resources. CRC Press. ISBN 0-8247-8297-6. OCLC 232950234. 
  80. ^ “MEDLINE Fact Sheet”. Washington DC: United States National Library of Medicine. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medline.html. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  81. ^ Petrucci, Mario. “Creative Writing <-> Science”. http://writeideas.org.uk/creativescience/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-27. 
  82. ^ Women in science have included:
  83. ^ Summers, L. H. (2005). Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce. The office of the President. Harvard University.
  84. ^ Nosek, B.A., et al. (2009). National differences in gender–science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement. PNAS, June 30, 2009, 106, 10593–10597.
  85. ^ Crowley, K. Callanan, M.A., Tenenbaum, H. R., & Allen, E. (2001). Parents explain more often to boys than to girls during shared scientific thinking. Psychological Science, 258–261.
  86. ^ Reflections on Gender and Science. Yale University Press, 1985.
  87. ^ a b c William R. Freudenburg, Robert Gramling, Debra J. Davidson (2008) “Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods (SCAMs): Science and the politics of doubt”. Sociological Inquiry. Vol. 78, No. 1. 2–38
  88. ^ “Vannevar Bush (July 1945), “Science, the Endless Frontier”". Nsf.gov. http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm. Retrieved 2012-02-05. 
  89. ^ “Main Science and Technology Indicators - 2008-1″ (pdf). OECD. http://www.webcitation.org/5tamBWVvW. Retrieved 20 April 2012.  50.8 KB
  90. ^ “Pseudoscientific — pretending to be scientific, falsely represented as being scientific“, from the Oxford American Dictionary, published by the Oxford English Dictionary; Hansson, Sven Ove (1996).“Defining Pseudoscience”, Philosophia Naturalis, 33: 169–176, as cited in “Science and Pseudo-science” (2008) in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Stanford article states: “Many writers on pseudoscience have emphasized that pseudoscience is non-science posing as science. The foremost modern classic on the subject (Gardner 1957) bears the title Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. According to Brian Baigrie (1988, 438), “[w]hat is objectionable about these beliefs is that they masquerade as genuinely scientific ones.” These and many other authors assume that to be pseudoscientific, an activity or a teaching has to satisfy the following two criteria (Hansson 1996): (1) it is not scientific, and (2) its major proponents try to create the impression that it is scientific”.
    • For example, Hewitt et al. Conceptual Physical Science Addison Wesley; 3 edition (July 18, 2003) ISBN 0-321-05173-4, Bennett et al. The Cosmic Perspective 3e Addison Wesley; 3 edition (July 25, 2003) ISBN 0-8053-8738-2; See also, e.g., Gauch HG Jr. Scientific Method in Practice (2003).
    • A 2006 National Science Foundation report on Science and engineering indicators quoted Michael Shermer’s (1997) definition of pseudoscience: ‘”claims presented so that they appear [to be] scientific even though they lack supporting evidence and plausibility”(p. 33). In contrast, science is “a set of methods designed to describe and interpret observed and inferred phenomena, past or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation”(p. 17)’.Shermer M. (1997). Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-3090-1.  as cited by National Science Board. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics (2006). “Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding”. Science and engineering indicators 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2.htm. 
    • “A pretended or spurious science; a collection of related beliefs about the world mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method or as having the status that scientific truths now have,” from the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition 1989.
  91. ^ Cargo Cult Science by Feyman, Richard. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  92. ^ “Coping with fraud” (PDF). The COPE Report 1999: 11–18. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928151119/http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/reports/1999/1999pdf3.pdf. Retrieved 2011-07-21. “It is 10 years, to the month, since Stephen Lock … Reproduced with kind permission of the Editor, The Lancet.” 
  93. ^ Jacques Barzun, Science: The Glorious Entertainment, Harper and Row: 1964. p. 15. (quote) and Chapters II and XII.
  94. ^ a b Fritjof Capra, Uncommon Wisdom, ISBN 0-671-47322-0, p. 213
  95. ^ a b Feyerabend 1993.
  96. ^ Feyerabend, Paul (1987). Farewell To Reason. Verso. p. 100. ISBN 0-86091-184-5. 
  97. ^ Aronowitz, Stanley (1988). Science As Power: Discourse and Ideology in Modern Society. University of Minnesota Press. p. viii (preface). ISBN 0-8166-1659-0. 
  98. ^ Stanley Aronowitz in conversation with Derrick Jensen in Jensen, Derrick (2004). Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control. Chelsea Green Publishing Company. p. 31. ISBN 1-931498-52-0. 
  99. ^ Rollin, Bernard E. (2006). Science and Ethics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85754-6. OCLC 238793190. 
  100. ^ Jung, Carl (1973). Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. Princeton University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0-691-01794-8. 
  101. ^ Parkin 1991 “Simultaneity and Sequencing in the Oracular Speech of Kenyan Diviners”, p. 185.
  102. ^ Sixel, Friedrich (2003). Die Natur in unserer Kultur. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. pp. 128. ISBN 978-3-8260-2584-6. 
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  104. ^ Mooney, Chris (Nov/Dec 2004). Blinded By Science, How ‘Balanced’ Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality. 43. Columbia Journalism Review. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/01/15/blinded-by-science-how-balanced-coverage-lets-the-scientific-fringe-hijack-reality/. Retrieved 2008-02-20. 
  105. ^ McIlwaine, S.; Nguyen, D. A. (2005). “Are Journalism Students Equipped to Write About Science?”. Australian Studies in Journalism 14: 41–60. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:8064. Retrieved 2008-02-20. 
  106. ^ “1988: Egg industry fury over salmonella claim”, “On This Day,” BBC News, December 3, 1988.

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Government

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Government, also known as the state, refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized (Referred : More to govern than control).[1][2] Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state. A form of government, or form of state governance, refers to the set of political institutions by which a government of a state is organized. Synonyms include “regime type” and “system of government“.

States are served by a continuous succession of different governments.[3] Each successive government is composed of a body of individuals who control and exercise control over political decision-making. Their function is to make and enforce laws and arbitrate conflicts. In some societies, this group is often a self-perpetuating or hereditary class. In other societies, such as democracies, the political roles remain, but there is frequent turnover of the people actually filling the positions.[4]

The word government is derived from the Latin infinitive gubernare, meaning “to govern” or “to manage”. In parliamentary systems, the word “government” is used to refer to what in presidential systems would be the executive branch and to the governing party. In parliamentary systems, the government is composed of the prime minister and the cabinet. In other cases, “government” refers to executive, legislative, judicial, bureaucratic, and possibly also devolved powers.

Government is also known as the state. Public disapproval of a particular government (expressed, for example, by not re-electing an incumbent) does not necessarily represent disapproval of the state itself (i.e. of the particular framework of government). In fact, leaders often attempt to deliberately blur the lines between the two, in order to conflate their interests with those of the polity.[5]

Contents

Classifying governments

In political science, it has long been a goal to create a typology or taxonomy of polities, as typologies of political systems are not obvious.[6] It is especially important in the political science fields of comparative politics and international relations.

On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be easy, as all governments have an official form. The United States is a federal republic, while the former Soviet Union was a socialist republic. However self-identification is not objective, and as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, defining regimes can be tricky.[7] For example, elections are a defining characteristic of a democracy, but in practice elections in the former Soviet Union were not “free and fair” and took place in a single party state. Thus in many practical classifications it would not be considered democratic.

Another complication is that a huge number of political systems originate as socio-economic movements and are then carried into governments by specific parties naming themselves after those movements. Experience with those movements in power, and the strong ties they may have to particular forms of government, can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves.

Maps


States by their systems of government. For the complete list of systems by country, see List of countries by system of government.


  presidential republics, full presidential system
  presidential republics, parliament supervising an executive presidency
  presidential republics, semi-presidential system
  parliamentary republics
  parliamentary constitutional monarchies in which the monarch does not personally exercise power
  constitutional monarchies in which the monarch personally exercises power, often alongside a weak parliament
  absolute monarchies
  states whose constitutions grant only a single party the right to govern
  states where constitutional provisions for government have been suspended

Countries highlighted in blue are designated “electoral democracies” in Freedom House’s 2010 survey “Freedom in the World”.[8] Freedom House considers democracy in practice, not merely official claims.


A world map distinguishing countries of the world as monarchies (red) from other forms of government (blue). Many monarchies are considered electoral democracies because the monarch is largely ritual; in other cases the monarch is the only powerful political authority.


Forms of government

  • Adhocracy - government based on type of organization that operates in opposite fashion to a bureaucracy.
  • Authoritarian – Authoritarian governments are characterized by an emphasis on the authority of the state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by unelected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom.
  • Anarchism - Sometimes said to be non-governance; it is a structure which strives for non-hierarchical voluntary associations among agents.
  • Band Society - government based on small (usually family) unit with a semi-informal hierarchy, with strongest (either physical strength or strength of character) as leader. Very much like a pack seen in other animals, such as wolves.
  • Chiefdom (Tribal) - government based on small complex society of varying degrees of centralization that is led by an individual known as a chief.
  • Constitutional monarchy – A government that has a monarch, but one whose powers are limited by law or by a formal constitution, such as the United Kingdom[9][10]
  • Constitutional republic – A government whose powers are limited by law or a formal constitution, and chosen by a vote amongst at least some sections of the populace (Ancient Sparta was in its own terms a republic, though most inhabitants were disenfranchised; The United States is a republic, but the large numbers of African Americans and women did not have the vote early on). Republics which exclude sections of the populace from participation will typically claim to represent all citizens (by defining people without the vote as “non-citizens”).
  • Democracy – Rule by a government chosen by election where most of the populace are enfranchised. The key distinction between a democracy and other forms of constitutional government is usually taken to be that the right to vote is not limited by a person’s wealth or race (the main qualification for enfranchisement is usually having reached a certain age). A Democratic government is, therefore, one supported (at least at the time of the election) by a majority of the populace (provided the election was held fairly). A “majority” may be defined in different ways. There are many “power-sharing” (usually in countries where people mainly identify themselves by race or religion) or “electoral-college” or “constituency” systems where the government is not chosen by a simple one-vote-per-person headcount.
  • Dictatorship – Rule by an individual who has full power over the country. The term may refer to a system where the dictator came to power, and holds it, purely by force - but it also includes systems where the dictator first came to power legitimately but then was able to amend the constitution so as to, in effect, gather all power for themselves.[11] See also Autocracy and Stratocracy.
  • Emirate - similar to a monarchy or sultanate, but a government in which the supreme power is in the hands of an emir (the ruler of a Muslim state); the emir may be an absolute overlord or a sovereign with constitutionally limited authority.[12]
  • Geniocracy - government ruled by creativity, innovation, intelligence and wisdom.
  • Kratocracy - government ruled by those strong enough to seize power through physical force or political cunning.
  • Kritocracy - government ruled by judges.
  • Meritocracy - Rule by a group selected on the basis of their ability.
  • Monarchy – Rule by an individual who has inherited the role and expects to bequeath it to their heir.[13]
  • Nomocracy - Rule according to higher law. That is, a government under the sovereignty of rational laws and civic right as opposed to one under theocratic systems of government [1]. In a nomocracy, ultimate and final authority (sovereignty) exists in the law.
  • Oligarchy – Rule by a small group of people who share similar interests or family relations.[14]
  • Plutocracy – A government composed of the wealthy class. Any of the forms of government listed here can be plutocracy. For instance, if all of the voted representatives in a republic are wealthy, then it is a republic and a plutocracy.
  • Republic - is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people.[15][16] In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch.[17][18] Montesquieu included both democracies, where all the people have a share in rule, and aristocracies or oligarchies, where only some of the people rule, as republican forms of government.[19]
  • Stratocracy - form of military government in which the state and the military are traditionally the same thing. (Not to be confused with “militarism” or “military dictatorship”.)
  • Technocracy - government ruled by doctors, engineers, scientists, professionals and other technical experts.
  • Theocracy – Rule by a religious elite.[20]
  • Timocracy - government ruled by honorable citizens and property owners.
  • Totalitarian – Totalitarian governments regulate nearly every aspect of public and private life.

Significant attributes

Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government.

By approach to regional autonomy

This list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to the distribution of sovereignty, and the autonomy of regions within the state.

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Government

References

  1. ^ “government”. Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. November 2010. 
  2. ^ Bealey, Frank, ed. (1999). “government”. The Blackwell dictionary of political science: a user’s guide to its terms. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 147. ISBN 9780631206958. http://books.google.com/books?id=6EuKLlzYoTMC&pg=PA147. 
  3. ^ Flint, Colin & Taylor, Peter (2007). Political Geography: World Economy, Nation-State, and Locality (5th ed.). Pearson/Prentice Hall. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-13-196012-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=GXz9xHdHeZcC. 
  4. ^ Barclay, Harold (1990). People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy. Left Bank Books. p. 31. ISBN 1871082161. 
  5. ^ Holsti, Kalevi Jaako (1996). The state, war, and the state of war. Cambridge University Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 9780521577908. http://books.google.com/books?id=5S_jQSUghsYC&pg=PA84. 
  6. ^ Lewellen, Ted C. Political Anthropology: An Introduction Third Edition. Praeger Publishers; 3rd edition (30 November 2003)
  7. ^ Kopstein and Lichbach (2005:4)
  8. ^ “Freedom in the World” (PDF). Archived from the original on 8 February 2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20110208040624/http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fiw10/FIW_2010_Tables_and_Graphs.pdf. Retrieved 13 December 2011. 
  9. ^ Fotopoulos, Takis, The Multidimensional Crisis ad Inclusive Democracy. (Athens: Gordios, 2005).(English translation[dead link] of the book with the same title published in Greek).
  10. ^ “Victorian Electronic Democracy : Glossary”. 28 July 2005. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071213045132/http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/SARC/E-Democracy/Final_Report/Glossary.htm. 
  11. ^ American 503
  12. ^ CIA - The World Factbook - Field Listing :: Government type
  13. ^ American 1134
  14. ^ American 1225
  15. ^ Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Bk. II, ch. 1.
  16. ^ “Republic”. Encyclopædia Britannica. 
  17. ^ “republic”, WordNet 3.0 (Dictionary.com), http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic, retrieved 20 March 2009 
  18. ^ “Republic”. Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic. Retrieved 14 August 2010. 
  19. ^ Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, Bk. II, ch. 2–3.
  20. ^ American 1793

Further reading

  • Kjaer, Anne Mette (2004). Governance. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780745629797. http://books.google.com/books?id=AY5SIsf1nI4C. 
  • Newton, Kenneth & Van Deth, Jan W. (2005). Foundations of Comparative Politics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521536200. http://books.google.com/books?id=jkPIY_lVKUIC. 
  • Sharma, Urmila & Sharma, S.K. (2000). “Forms of Government”. Principles and Theory of Political Science. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. ISBN 9788171569380. http://books.google.com/books?id=qdZ3VRRLDrgC&pg=PA406. 
  • Boix, Carles (2003). Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press. 
  • Bunce, Valerie. 2003. “Rethinking Recent Democratization: Lessons from the Postcommunist Experience.” World Politics 55(2):167-192.
  • Colomer, Josep M. (2003). Political Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  • Dahl, Robert Polyarchy Yale University Press (1971)
  • Heritage, Andrew, Editor-in-Chief. 2000. World Desk Reference
  • Lijphart, Arend (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press. 
  • Linz, Juan. 2000. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
  • Linz, Juan, and Stepan, Alfred. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southernn Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
  • Lichbach, Mark and Alan Zukerman, eds. 1997. Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  • Luebbert, Gregory M. 1987. “Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe,” World Politics 39, 4.
  • Moore, Barrington, Jr. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Cambridge: Beacon Press, ch. 7-9.
  • Comparative politics : interests, identities, and institutions in a changing global order/edited by Jeffrey Kopstein, Mark Lichbach, 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1970. Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism. Berkeley: University of California.
  • O’Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C., and Whitehead, Laurence, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: comparative Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Przeworski, Adam. 1992. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America, New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael, Cheibub, Jose, and Limongi, Fernando. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well Being in the World, 1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Shugart, Mathhew and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics, New York, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.
  • Taagepera, Rein and Matthew Shugart. 1989. Seats and votes: The effects and determinants of electoral systems, Yale Univ. Press.

External links

Look up government in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up Appendix:List of forms of government in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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Extremism

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“Extremists” redirects here. For the DC Comics supervillain team, see Extremists (comics).
“Extremist” redirects here. For the 1992 instrumental rock album, see The Extremist. For the comic book series, see The Extremist (comic).
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Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards.[citation needed] In democratic societies, individuals or groups that advocate the replacement of democracy with an authoritarian regime are usually considered to be extremists, in authoritarian societies the opposite typically applies.

Extremism is usually contrasted with moderation, and extremists with moderates. (For example, in contemporary discussions in Western countries of Islam, or of Islamic political movements, it is common for there to be a heavy stress on the distinction between extremist and moderate Muslims. It is also not uncommon to necessarily define distinctions regarding extremist Christians as opposed to moderate Christians, as in countries such as the United States).

Political agendas perceived as extremist often include those from the far left or far right as well as fundamentalism or fanaticism.

The term extremism is almost invariably used pejoratively, however the term may also sometimes be associated with person(s) who have different view(s) which is not consistent with the existing norm(s). It need not necessarily imply that the person is a threat to the society or the government or any other agency, but the underlying fact is that there is a totally new and unique perception of the person about life, politics or any other agenda.

Contents

Problem of definition of extremism

In different realms at different times were many different definitions of “extremism”. Dr. Peter T. Dickman and Dr. Andrea Bartoli give short observation of definitions:[1]

“ Extremism is a complex phenomenon, although its complexity is often hard to see. Most simply, it can be defined as activities (beliefs, attitudes, feelings, actions, strategies) of a character far removed from the ordinary. In conflict settings it manifests as a severe form of conflict engagement. However, the labeling of activities, people, and groups as “extremist”, and the defining of what is “ordinary” in any setting is always a subjective and political matter. Thus, we suggest that any discussion of extremism be mindful of the following:
  • Typically, the same extremist act will be viewed by some as just and moral (such as pro-social “freedom fighting”), and by others as unjust and immoral (antisocial “terrorism”) depending on the observer’s values, politics, moral scope, and the nature of their relationship with the actor.
  • In addition, one’s sense of the moral or immoral nature of a given act of extremism (such as Nelson Mandela’s use of guerilla war tactics against the South African Government) may change as conditions (leadership, world opinion, crises, historical accounts, etc.) change. Thus, the current and historical context of extremist acts shapes our view of them.
  • Power differences also matter when defining extremism. When in conflict, the activities of members of low power groups tend to be viewed as more extreme than similar activities committed by members of groups advocating the status quo. In addition, extreme acts are more likely to be employed by marginalized people and groups who view more normative forms of conflict engagement as blocked for them or biased. However, dominant groups also commonly employ extreme activities (such as governmental sanctioning of violent paramilitary groups or the attack in Waco by the FBI in the U.S.).
  • Extremist acts often employ violent means, although extremist groups will differ in their preference for violent vs. non-violent tactics, in the level of violence they employ, and in the preferred targets of their violence (from infrastructure to military personnel to civilians to children). Again, low power groups are more likely to employ direct, episodic forms of violence (such as suicide bombings), whereas dominant groups tend to be associated with more structural or institutionalized forms (like the covert use of torture or the informal sanctioning of police brutality).
  • Although extremist individuals and groups (such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad) are often viewed as cohesive and consistently evil, it is important to recognize that they may be conflicted or ambivalent psychologically as individuals, and/or contain a great deal of difference and conflict within their groups. For instance, individual members of Hamas may differ considerably in their willingness to negotiate their differences with the Palestinian Authority and, ultimately, with certain factions in Israel.
  • Ultimately, the core problem that extremism presents in situations of protracted conflict is less the severity of the activities (although violence, trauma, and escalation are obvious concerns) but more so the closed, fixed, and intolerant nature of extremist attitudes, and their subsequent imperviousness to change.
 ”

Radicalism or extremism?

The terms extremism or extremist are almost always exonymic — i.e. applied by others to a group rather than by a group labeling itself. Rather than labeling themselves extremist, those labeled as such might describe themselves as, for example, political radicals. There is no political party that calls itself “right-wing extremist” or “left-wing extremist”, and there is no sect of any religion that calls itself “extremist” or which calls its doctrine “extremism”.

The term extremist is used to describe groups and individuals who have become radicalized, in some way, even though the term radical originally meant to go to the root of a (social) problem. The term radical is one not normally regarded as pejorative (except perhaps in the United States of America) and, unlike extremist, is sometimes used by groups in their description of themselves.

The term extremist is often used with reference to those who use or advocate violence against the will of society at large, but it is also used by some to describe those who advocate or use violence to enforce the will of the social body, such as a government or majority constituency. Those described as extremist would in general not accept that what they practice or advocate constitutes violence and would instead speak in terms of acts of “resistance”or militant action or the use of force. The word violence cannot be regarded as value-neutral. Ideology and methodology often become inextricably linked under the single term extremism.

The notion that there is a philosophy which can be described as extremism is considered by some to be suspect. Within sociology, several academics who track (and are critical of) extreme right-wing groups have objected to the term extremist, which was popularized by centrist sociologists in the 1960s and 1970s. As Jerome Himmelstein states the case: “At best this characterization tells us nothing substantive about the people it labels; at worst it paints a false picture.” (Himmelstein, p. 7). The act of labeling a person, group or action as extremist is sometimes claimed to be a technique to further a political goal — especially by governments seeking to defend the status quo, or political centrists. In any event, the term extremist — like the word violence— cannot be regarded as value-neutral.

Theories of extremism

Laird Wilcox identifies 21 alleged traits of a “political extremist”, ranging from behaviour like “a tendency to character assassination“, over hateful behaviour like “name calling and labelling“, to general character traits like “a tendency to view opponents and critics as essentially evil”, “a tendency to substitute intimidation for argument” or “groupthink“.[2]

Eric Hoffer and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. were two political writers during the mid-20th century who gave what purported to be accounts of “political extremism”. Hoffer wrote books such as The True Believer and The Passionate State of Mind about the psychology and sociology of those who join “fanatical” mass movements. Schlesinger wrote books such as The Vital Center, championing a supposed “center” of politics within which “mainstream” political discourse takes place, and underscoring the alleged need for societies to draw definite lines regarding what falls outside of this acceptability.

Seymour Martin Lipset argued that besides the extremism of the left and right there is also an extremism of the center, and that it actually formed the base of fascism.[3]

Joining extremist groups has been seen to arise from beliefs about the acceptability of aggression towards the group’s target. For example, in Pakistan, beliefs about the acceptability of aggression against Jews were shown to predict who would join an extremist anti-Semitic group.[4] Cultural differences in acceptability about aggression towards certain groups may explain extremism towards certain targets, and as these beliefs can be easily changed through intervention, this may offer a way in which extremism can be discouraged.[4]

“Extremism” is not a stand-alone characteristic. The attitude or behavior of an “extremist” may be represented as part of a spectrum which ranges from mild interest through “obsession” to “fanaticism” and “extremism”. The alleged similarity between the “extreme left” and “extreme right”, or perhaps between different religious “zealots”, may mean only that all these are “unacceptable” from the standpoint of a supposed mainstream or majority.

Economist Ronald Wintrobe[5] argues that many extremist movements, even though having completely different ideologies share a common set of characteristics. As an example, he lists the following common characteristics between “Jewish fundamentalists” and “the extremists of Hamas”:[6]

  • Both are against any compromise with the other side.
  • Both want the entire land of Palestine for their group.
  • Both are entirely sure of their position.
  • Both advocate and sometimes use violence to achieve their ends.
  • Both are nationalistic.
  • Both are intolerant of dissent within their group.
  • Both demonize the other side, so that the members of Hamas, as viewed by the Israeli fundamentalists, sometimes sound exactly like the Israeli fundamentalists as viewed by Hamas.

Psychological

Among the loved explanations for extremism is one that views it as a plague.[1] Arno Gruen said, “The lack of identity associated with extremists is the result of self-destructive self-hatred that leads to feelings of revenge toward life itself, and a compulsion to kill one’s own humanness.” Thus extremism is seen as not a tactic, nor an ideology, but as a pathological illness which feeds on the destruction of life.[1]

Another view is that extremism is an emotional outlet for severe feelings stemming from “persistent experiences of oppression, insecurity, humiliation, resentment, loss, and rage” which are presumed to “lead individuals and groups to adopt conflict engagement strategies which “fit” or feel consistent with these experiences”.[1]

Extremism is however seen by other researchers as a “rational strategy in a game over power”.[1] See for instance the works of Eli Berman.

Uses of the term in “mainstream” politics

Barry Goldwater said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue” at the 1964 Republican Convention in a sentence attributed to his speechwriter Karl Hess.

Robert F. Kennedy said, “What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”

Since the 1990s, in United States politics the term Sister Souljah moment has been used to describe a politician’s public repudiation of an allegedly extremist person or group, statement, or position which might otherwise be associated with his own party.

Other terms

The term “subversive” was often used interchangeably, in the United States at least, with “extremist” during the Cold War period, although the two words are not synonymous.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e Dr. Peter T. Coleman and Dr. Andrea Bartoli: Addressing Extremism, pp. 3-4
  2. ^ http://www.lairdwilcox.com/news/hoaxerproject.html
  3. ^ G. M. Tamás: On Post-Fascism, Boston Review, summer 2000
  4. ^ a b Amjad, N., & Wood, A. M. (2009). Identifying and changing the normative beliefs about aggression which lead young Muslim adults to join extremist anti-Semitic groups in Pakistan. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 514-519
  5. ^ http://economics.uwo.ca/faculty/wintrobe/
  6. ^ Wintrobe (2006), p. 5

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Extraterrestrial life

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For fiction, see Extraterrestrials in fiction.
For other uses, see Astrobiology and Alien (disambiguation).

A 1967 Soviet Union 16 kopeks postage stamp, depicting a satellite from an imagined extraterrestrial civilization

Extraterrestrial life (from the Latin words: extra [”beyond”, or “not of”] and‎ terrestris [”of or belonging to Earth”]) is defined as life that does not originate from Earth. Referred to as alien life, or simply aliens (or space aliens, to differentiate from other definitions of alien or aliens) these hypothetical forms of life range from simple bacteria-like organisms to beings far more complex than humans.

The development and testing of hypotheses on extraterrestrial life, is known as exobiology or astrobiology; the term astrobiology, however, includes the study of life on Earth, viewed in its astronomical context. Many scientists consider extraterrestrial life to be plausible, but no direct evidence has yet been found.

Contents

Background

Unsolved problems in biology
Has life developed on other planets?

Alien life, such as bacteria, has been hypothesized to exist in the Solar System and throughout the Universe. This hypothesis relies on the vast size and consistent physical laws of the observable Universe. According to this argument, made by scientists such as Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, it would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere other than Earth.[1][2] This argument is embodied in the Copernican principle, which states that the Earth does not occupy a unique position in the Universe, and the mediocrity principle, which holds that there is nothing special about life on Earth.[3] Life may have emerged independently at many places throughout the Universe. Alternatively life may form less frequently, then spread between habitable planets through panspermia or exogenesis.[4] In any regards, complex organic molecules necessary for life may have formed in the protoplanetary disk of dust grains surrounding the Sun before the formation of the Earth based on computer model studies.[5] According to these studies, this same process may also occur around other stars that acquire planets.[5] (Also see Extraterrestrial organic molecules.)

Suggested locations at which life might have developed include the planets Venus[6] and Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa,[7] and Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus.[8] In May 2011, NASA scientists reported that Enceladus “is emerging as the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life as we know it”.[9][10] Life may appear on extrasolar planets, such as Gliese 581 c, g and d, recently discovered to be near Earth mass and apparently located in their star’s habitable zone, with the potential to have liquid water.[11] In December 2011, scientists working with NASA’s Kepler space telescope announced the discovery of Kepler-22b, an exoplanet that appears to be orbiting a sun-like star within the habitable zone. [12]

No evidence of extraterrestrial life has been found; however, various controversial claims have been made.[13] Beliefs that some unidentified flying objects are of extraterrestrial origin (see Extraterrestrial hypothesis),[14] along with claims of alien abduction,[15] are dismissed by most scientists. Most UFO sightings are explained either as sightings of Earth-based aircraft or known astronomical objects, or as hoaxes.[16]

In November 2011, the White House released an official response to two petitions asking the U.S. government to acknowledge formally that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose any intentional withholding of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings. According to the response, “The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race.”[17][18] Also, according to the response, there is “no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”[17][18] The response further noted that efforts, like SETI, the Kepler space telescope and the NASA Mars rover, continue looking for signs of life. The response noted “odds are pretty high” that there may be life on other planets but “the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved.”[17][18]

Possible basis

Several hypotheses have been proposed about the possible basis of alien life from a biochemical, evolutionary or morphological viewpoint.

Biochemistry

Main articles: Biochemistry, Hypothetical types of biochemistry, and Water and life

All life on Earth is based upon 26 chemical elements. However, about 95% of this life is built upon only six of these elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur, abbreviated CHNOPS. These six elements form the basic building blocks of virtually all life on Earth, while most of the remaining elements are found in only trace amounts.[19]

Life on Earth requires water as the solvent in which biochemical reactions take place. Sufficient quantities of carbon and the other elements along with water, may enable the formation of living organisms on other planets with a chemical make-up and temperature range similar to that of Earth.[20] Terrestrial planets, such as Earth, are formed in a process that allows for the possibility of having compositions similar to Earth’s.[21] The combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the chemical form of carbohydrates (e.g. sugar) can be a source of chemical energy on which life depends, and can provide structural elements for life (such as ribose, in the molecules DNA and RNA, and cellulose in plants). Plants derive energy through the conversion of light energy into chemical energy via photosynthesis. Life, as currently recognized, requires carbon in both reduced (methane derivatives) and partially oxidized (carbon oxides) states. Nitrogen is needed as a reduced ammonia derivative in all proteins, sulfur as a derivative of hydrogen sulfide in some necessary proteins, and phosphorus oxidized to phosphates in genetic material and in energy transfer.

Pure water is useful because it has a neutral pH due to its continued dissociation between hydroxide and hydronium ions. As a result, it can dissolve both positive metallic ions and negative non-metallic ions with equal ability. Furthermore, the fact that organic molecules can be either hydrophobic (repelled by water) or hydrophilic (soluble in water) creates the ability of organic compounds to orient themselves to form water-enclosing membranes. Additionally, the hydrogen bonds between water molecules give it an ability to store energy with evaporation, which upon condensation is released. This helps to moderate the climate, cooling the tropics and warming the poles, helping to maintain the thermodynamic stability needed for life.

Carbon is fundamental to terrestrial life for its immense flexibility in creating covalent chemical bonds with a variety of non-metallic elements, principally nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. Carbon dioxide and water together enable the storage of solar energy in sugars, such as glucose. The oxidation of glucose releases biochemical energy needed to fuel all other biochemical reactions.

The ability to form organic acids (–COOH) and amine bases (–NH2) gives rise to the possibility of neutralization dehydrating reactions to build long polymer peptides and catalytic proteins from monomer amino acids. When combined with phosphates, these acids can build the information-storing molecule of inheritance, DNA, and the principal energy transfer molecule of cellular life, ATP.

Due to their relative abundance and usefulness in sustaining life, many have hypothesized that life forms elsewhere in the universe would utilize these basic materials. However, other elements and solvents could provide a basis for life. Silicon is most often deemed to be the probable alternative to carbon.[citation needed] Silicon life forms are proposed to have a crystalline morphology, and are hypothesized to be able to exist in high temperatures, such as on planets which are very close to their star.[citation needed] Life forms based in ammonia (rather than water) have been suggested, though this solution appears less optimal than water.[22]

From a chemical perspective, life is fundamentally a self-replicating reaction, but one which could arise under a great many conditions and with various possible ingredients, though carbon-oxygen within the liquid temperature range of water seems most conducive. Suggestions have even been made that self-replicating reactions of some sort could occur within the plasma of a star, though it would be highly unconventional.[23]

Several pre-conceived ideas about the characteristics of life outside of Earth have been questioned. For example, a NASA scientist suggested that the color of photosynthesizing pigments of hypothetical life on extrasolar planets might not be green.[24]

Evolution and morphology

In addition to the biochemical basis of extraterrestrial life, many have considered evolution and morphology. Science fiction has often depicted extraterrestrial life with humanoid and/or reptilian forms. Aliens have often been depicted as having light green or grey skin, with a large head, as well as four limbs—i.e. fundamentally humanoid. Other subjects, such as felines and insects, etc., have occurred in fictional representations of aliens.

A division has been suggested between universal and parochial (narrowly restricted) characteristics. Universals are features which are thought to have evolved independently more than once on Earth (and thus, presumably, are not too difficult to develop) and are so intrinsically useful that species will inevitably tend towards them. The most fundamental of these is probably bilateral symmetry, but more complex (though still basic) characteristics include flight, sight, photosynthesis and limbs, all of which are thought to have evolved several times here on Earth. There is a huge variety of eyes, for example, and many of these have radically different working schematics and different visual foci: the visual spectrum, infrared, polarity and echolocation. Parochials, however, are essentially arbitrary evolutionary forms. These often have little inherent utility (or at least have a function which can be equally served by dissimilar morphology) and probably will not be replicated. Intelligent aliens could communicate through gestures, as deaf humans do, by sounds created from structures unrelated to breathing, which happens on Earth when, for instance, cicadas vibrate their wings or crickets stridulate their wings, or visually through bioluminescence or chromatophore-like structures.

Attempting to define parochial features challenges many taken-for-granted notions about morphological necessity. Skeletons, which are essential to large terrestrial organisms according to the experts of the field of gravitational biology, are almost assured to be replicated elsewhere in one form or another. The assumption of radical diversity amongst putative extraterrestrials is by no means settled. While many exobiologists do stress that the enormously heterogeneous nature of life on Earth foregrounds an even greater variety in outer space, others point out that convergent evolution may dictate substantial similarities between Earth and extraterrestrial life. These two schools of thought are called “divergionism” and “convergionism” respectively.[23]

Planetary habitability in the Solar System

See also: Planetary habitability and Natural satellite habitability

Some bodies in the Solar System have been suggested as having the potential for an environment that could host extraterrestrial life, particularly those with possible subsurface oceans. Though due to the lack of habitable environments beyond Earth, should life be discovered elsewhere in the Solar System, astrobiologists suggest that it more likely will be in the form of extremophile microorganisms.

The planets Venus and Mars, along with several natural satellites orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, and even comets, are suspected to possess niche environments in which life might exist. A subsurface marine environment on Jupiter’s moon Europa might be the most suitable habitat in the Solar System, outside of Earth, for multicellular organisms.

Panspermia suggests that life elsewhere in the Solar System may have a common origin. If extraterrestrial life was found on another body in the Solar System, it could have originated from Earth just as life on Earth may have been seeded from elsewhere (exogenesis). The Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, developed by the Planetary Society launched in 2011 was designed to test some aspect of these hypotheses, but it was destroyed along with the carrier Fobos-Grunt mission.[25]

Venus

Carl Sagan, David Grinspoon and Dirk Schulze-Makuch have put forward a hypothesis that microbes could exist in the stable cloud layers 50 km above the surface of Venus; the hypothesis is based on the premises of hospitable climates and chemical disequilibrium.[26]

Mars

Main article: Life on Mars
See also: Water on Mars

Life on Mars has been long speculated. Liquid water is widely thought to have existed on Mars in the past, and there may still be liquid water beneath the surface. The origin of the potential biosignature of methane in Mars atmosphere is unexplained, although abiotic hypotheses have also been proposed.[27] By July 2008, laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander had identified water in a soil sample. The lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample to an instrument which identifies vapours produced by the heating of samples. Photographs from the Mars Global Surveyor from 2006 showed evidence of recent (i.e. within 10 years) flows of a liquid on Mars’s frigid surface.[28] There is evidence that Mars had a warmer and wetter past: dried-up river beds, polar ice caps, volcanoes and minerals that form in the presence of water have all been found. Nonetheless, present conditions on Mars may support life since lichens were found to successfully survive Martian conditions in the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) maintained by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).[29][30]

Jupiter

Carl Sagan and others[31] in the 1960s and 70s computed conditions for hypothetical amino acid-based macroscopic life in the atmosphere of Jupiter, based on observed conditions of this atmosphere. However, the conditions do not appear to permit the type of encapsulation thought necessary for molecular biochemistry, so life is thought to be unlikely.[32]

However, some of Jupiter’s moons may have habitats to sustain life. Scientists have suggested that heated subsurface oceans of water may exist deep under the crusts of the three outer Galilean moons—Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The EJSM/Laplace is planned to determine the habitability of these environments. However, Europa is seen as the main target for the discovery of life.

Europa


Subsurface oceans such as the one pictured of Europa, could possibly harbour basic life forms.[7][33]

Jupiter’s moon Europa has been subject to speculation of life due to the strong possibility of liquid water beneath an ice layer. Hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean, if they exist, may warm the ice and could be capable of supporting multicellular microorganisms.[7] It is also possible that Europa could support aerobic macrofauna using oxygen created by cosmic rays impacting its surface ice.[34]

The case for life on Europa was greatly enhanced in 2011 when it was discovered that vast lakes exist within Europa’s thick, icy shell. Scientists found that ice shelves surrounding the lakes appear to be collapsing into them, thereby providing a mechanism through which life-forming chemicals created in sunlit areas on Europa’s surface can be transferred to its interior.[35][36]

Saturn

While Saturn is itself considered inhospitable to life, the planet’s natural satellites, Titan and Enceladus have been speculated to possess possible habitats for life.

Titan

See also: Life on Titan

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only known moon with a significant atmosphere. Data from the Cassini–Huygens mission refuted the hypothesis of a global hydrocarbon ocean, but later demonstrated the existence of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in the polar regions—the first stable bodies of liquid discovered outside of Earth.[37][38][39] Analysis of data from the mission has uncovered aspects of atmospheric chemistry near the surface which are consistent with—but do not prove—the hypothesis that organisms there are consuming hydrogen, acetylene and ethane, and producing methane.[40][41][42]

An alternate explanation for the hypothetical existence of microbial life on Titan has already been formally proposed[43][44]—hypothesizing that microorganisms could have left Earth when it suffered a massive asteroid or comet impact (such as the impact that created Chicxulub crater only 65 mya), and survived a journey through space to land on Titan.

Enceladus

Enceladus (moon of Saturn) has some of the conditions for life including geothermal activity and water vapor as well as possible under-ice oceans heated by tidal effects. The Cassini probe detected carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen—all key elements for supporting living organisms—during a fly-by through one of Enceladus’s geysers spewing ice and gas in 2005. The temperature and density of the plumes indicate a warmer, watery source beneath the surface. However, no life has been confirmed.[27]

Small Solar System bodies

Small Solar System bodies have also been suggested as habitats for extremophiles. Fred Hoyle has proposed that microbial life life might exist on comets.[45] Some Earth microbes managed to survive on a lunar probe for many years, later considered doubtful as sterile procedures may not have been fully followed.

Scientific search


The NASA Kepler Mission for the search of extrasolar planets.

The scientific search for extraterrestrial life is being carried out both directly and indirectly.

Direct search

Scientists are directly searching for evidence of unicellular life within the Solar System, carrying out studies on the surface of Mars and examining meteors which have fallen to Earth. At the moment, no concrete plan exists for exploration of Europa for life. In 2008, a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency was announced that would have included studies of Europa. [46] However, in 2011 NASA was forced to deprioritize the mission due to a lack of funding, and it is possible that the ESA will take on the mission by itself. [47]

There is some limited evidence that microbial life might possibly exist (or have existed) on Mars.[48] An experiment on the Viking Mars lander reported gas emissions from heated Martian soil that some argue are consistent with the presence of microbes. However, the lack of corroborating evidence from other experiments on the Viking lander indicates that a non-biological reaction is a more likely hypothesis. Independently, in 1996, structures resembling nanobacteria were reportedly discovered in a meteorite, ALH84001, thought to be formed of rock ejected from Mars. This report is controversial.


Electron micrograph of martian meteorite ALH84001 showing structures that some scientists think could be fossilized bacteria-like life forms.

In February 2005, NASA scientists reported that they may have found some evidence of present life on Mars.[49] The two scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA’s Ames Research Center, based their claim on methane signatures found in Mars’ atmosphere resembling the methane production of some forms of primitive life on Earth, as well as on their own study of primitive life near the Rio Tinto river in Spain. NASA officials soon distanced NASA from the scientists’ claims, and Stoker herself backed off from her initial assertions.[50]

Though such methane findings are still very much in debate, support among some scientists for the existence of life on Mars seems to be growing: an informal survey conducted at the conference at which the European Space Agency presented its findings on methane in Mars’ atmosphere, indicated that 75% of the people present agreed that bacteria once lived on Mars. Roughly 25% agreed that bacteria inhabit the planet today.[51]

In November 2011, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover which is designed to search for past or present habitability on Mars using a variety of scientific instruments. The MSL is scheduled to land on Mars at Gale Crater in August 2012.[52][53][54]

The Gaia hypothesis stipulates that any planet with a robust population of life will have an atmosphere in chemical disequilibrium, which is relatively easy to determine from a distance by spectroscopy. However, significant advances in the ability to find and resolve light from smaller rocky worlds near their star are necessary before such spectroscopic methods can be used to analyze extrasolar planets.

On March 5, 2011, Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist with the Marshall Space Flight Center, speculated on the finding of alleged microfossils similar to cyanobacteria in CI1 carbonaceous meteorites.[55][56] However, NASA formally distanced itself from Hoover’s claim.[57][58][59] See Hoover paper controversy for more details.

In August 2011, findings by NASA, based on studies of meteorites found on Earth, suggests DNA and RNA components (adenine, guanine and related organic molecules), building blocks for life as we know it, may be formed extraterrestrially in outer space.[60][61][62] In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic matter (”amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure”) that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.[63][64][65] One of the scientists suggested that these compounds may have been related to the development of life on Earth and said that, “If this is the case, life on Earth may have had an easier time getting started as these organics can serve as basic ingredients for life.”[63]

Indirect search


Terrestrial Planet Finder – A planned Infrared interferometer for finding Earth-like extrasolar planets (as of 2011, it has not received the funding from NASA which it needs—that funding is going towards the Kepler mission).

It is hypothesized that any technological society in space will be transmitting information.[citation needed] However, if there is an advanced extraterrestrial society, there is no guarantee that they are transmitting information in the direction of Earth or that this information could be interpreted as such by humans.[citation needed] The length of time required for a signal to travel across the vastness of space means that any signal detected, or not detected, would come from the distant past.

Projects such as SETI are conducting an astronomical search for radio activity which would confirm the presence of intelligent life. A related suggestion is that aliens might broadcast pulsed and continuous laser signals in the optical, as well as infrared, spectrum;[66] laser signals have the advantage of not “smearing” in the interstellar medium, and may prove more conducive to communication between the stars. While other communication techniques, including laser transmission and interstellar spaceflight, have been discussed seriously and may well be feasible, the measure of effectiveness is the amount of information communicated per unit cost. This results in radio transmission as the method of choice.

Some have hypothesized that very advanced civilizations may create artificial black holes as an energy source or method of waste disposal. Thus, they suggest that the observation of a black hole with a mass of less than 3.5 solar masses, the theoretical lower mass limit for a naturally occurring black hole, would be evidence of an alien civilization.[67]

Extrasolar planets

Main article: Extrasolar planets
See also: List of planetary systems

Astronomers search for extrasolar planets that may be conducive to life, such as Gliese 581 c, Gliese 581 g, Gliese 581 d and OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, which have been found to have few Earth-like qualities.[68][69] Current radiodetection methods have been inadequate for such a search, since the resolution afforded by recent technology is inadequate for a detailed study of extrasolar planetary objects. Future telescopes should be able to image planets around nearby stars, which may reveal the presence of life – either directly or through spectrography – and would reveal key information, such as the presence of free oxygen in a planet’s atmosphere:


Artist’s Impression of Gliese 581 c, the first extrasolar planet discovered within its star’s habitable zone.

  • Darwin was a proposed ESA mission designed to find Earth-like planets and analyze their atmosphere.
  • The COROT mission, initiated by the French Space Agency, was launched in 2006, and is currently looking for extrasolar planets; it is the first of its kind.
  • The Terrestrial Planet Finder was supposed to have been launched by NASA, but as of 2011, budget cuts have caused it to be delayed indefinitely.
  • The Kepler Mission, largely replacing the Terrestrial Planet Finder, was launched in March 2009.

It has been argued that Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth, may contain planets which could be capable of sustaining life.[70]

On April 24, 2007, scientists at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile said they had found the first Earth-like planet. The planet, known as Gliese 581 c, orbits within the habitable zone of its star Gliese 581, a red dwarf star which is 20.5 light years (194 trillion km) from the Earth. It was initially thought that this planet could contain liquid water, but recent computer simulations of the climate on Gliese 581 c by Werner von Bloh and his team at Germany’s Institute for Climate Impact Research suggest that carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere would create a runaway greenhouse effect. This would warm the planet well above the boiling point of water (100 degrees Celsius/212 degrees Fahrenheit), thus dimming the hopes of finding life. As a result of greenhouse models, scientists are now turning their attention to Gliese 581 d, which lies just outside of the star’s traditional habitable zone.[71]

On May 29, 2007, the Associated Press released a report stating that scientists identified twenty-eight new extra-solar planetary bodies. One of these newly discovered planets is said to have many similarities to Neptune.[72]

In May 2011, a planet in the Gliese system was found capable of sustaining life. Researchers predict Gliese 581 d, which orbits a red dwarf 20 light years away, not only exists in the “Goldilocks zone” where water can be present in liquid form, but is big enough to have a stable carbon dioxide atmosphere and “warm enough to have oceans, clouds, and rainfall,” according to France’s National Centre for Scientific Research.[73]

In December 2011, NASA confirmed that 600-light-year distant Kepler-22b, at 2.4 times the radius of Earth, is potentially the closest match to Earth in terms of both size and temperature.[74][75]

Since 1992, hundreds of planets around other stars (”extrasolar planets” or “exoplanets“) in the Milky Way Galaxy have been discovered. As of May 3, 2012, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia identified 763 extrasolar planets (in 611 planetary systems and 101 multiple planetary systems); the extrasolar planets range in size from that of terrestrial planets similar to Earth to that of gas giants larger than Jupiter.[76] The number of observed exoplanets is expected to increase greatly in the coming years. Because the Kepler spacecraft must view three stellar transits by exoplanets before it identifies them as candidate planets, it has so far only been able to identify planets that orbit their star at a relatively quick rate. The mission is expected to continue until at least 2016, in which time many more exoplanet candidates are expected to be found.[77]

Despite these successes, the transit method employed by the Kepler spacecraft requires that planetary orbits be at a small inclination to the line of sight of the observer. Due to this constraint, the probability of detecting a planet of Earth’s size and orbital radius around a distant star is just 0.47%. Thus, the number of planets we are currently able to detect is only a small fraction of the total amount of planets present within the galaxy. [78]

The Drake equation

Main article: Drake equation

In 1961, University of California, Santa Cruz astronomer and astrophysicist Dr. Frank Drake devised the Drake equation. This controversial equation multiplied estimates of the following terms together:

  • The rate of formation of suitable stars.
  • The fraction of those stars which are orbited by planets.
  • The number of Earth-like worlds per planetary system.
  • The fraction of planets where intelligent life develops.
  • The fraction of possible communicative planets.
  • The “lifetime” of possible communicative civilizations.

Criticism of the Drake equation follows mostly from the observation that the terms in the equation are entirely based on conjecture. Thus the equation cannot be used to draw firm conclusions of any kind.[79] Although the Drake equation currently involves speculation about unmeasured parameters, it was not meant to be science, but intended as a way to stimulate dialogue on these topics. Then the focus becomes how to proceed experimentally. Indeed, Drake originally formulated the equation merely as an agenda for discussion at the Green Bank conference.[80]

Drake used the equation to estimate that there are approximately 10,000 planets in the Milky Way galaxy containing intelligent life with the possible capability of communicating with Earth.[81]

Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are at least 125 billion galaxies in the observable Universe. It is estimated that at least ten percent of all sun-like stars have a system of planets,[82] i.e. there are 6.25×1018 stars with planets orbiting them in the observable Universe. Even if we assume that only one out of a billion of these stars have planets supporting life, there would be some 6.25×109 (billion) life-supporting planetary systems in the observable Universe.

The apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations is known as the Fermi paradox.

Beliefs

Ancient and medieval ideas

Main article: Cosmic pluralism

Anunciacion by Carpaccio

In antiquity, it was common to assume a cosmos consisting of “many worlds” inhabited by intelligent, non-human life-forms, but these “worlds” were mythological and not informed by the heliocentric understanding of the solar system, or the understanding of the Sun as one among countless stars.[83] An example would be the fourteen loka of Hindu cosmology, or the Nine Worlds of Old Norse mythology, etc. The Sun and the Moon often appear as inhabited worlds in such contexts, or as vehicles (chariots or boats, etc.) driven by gods. The Japanese folk tale of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (10th century) is an example of a princess of the Moon people visiting Earth.

Such conceptions of a universe consisting of “many worlds” are found in classical Greek philosophy, and later in Christian and Jewish theology. (See exotheology.) The atomists of Greece like Epicurus took up the idea, arguing that an infinite universe ought to have an infinity of populated worlds. Ancient Greek cosmology worked against the idea of extraterrestrial life in one critical respect, however: the geocentric Universe. Championed by Aristotle and codified by Ptolemy, it favored the Earth and Earth-life (Aristotle denied that there could be a plurality of worlds) and seemingly rendered extraterrestrial life philosophically untenable.[citation needed]

The Jewish Talmud states that there are at least 18,000 other worlds, but provides little elaboration on the nature of those worlds, or on whether they are physical or spiritual. Based on this, however, the 18th century exposition “Sefer HaB’rit” posits that extraterrestrial creatures exist, and that some may well possess intelligence. It adds that humans should not expect creatures from another world to resemble earthly life any more than sea creatures resemble land animals.[84][85]

Hindu beliefs of endlessly repeated cycles of life have led to descriptions of multiple worlds in existence and their mutual contacts (Sanskrit word sampark (सम्पर्क) means “contact” as in Mahasamparka (महासम्पर्क) = “the great contact”). According to Hindu scriptures, there are innumerable universes to facilitate the fulfillment of the separated desires of innumerable living entities. However, the purpose of such creations is to bring back the deluded souls to correct understanding about the purpose of life. Aside from the innumerable universes which are material, there is the unlimited spiritual world, where the purified living entities live with perfect conception about life and ultimate reality. The spiritually aspiring saints and devotees, as well as thoughtful men of the material world, have been getting guidance and help from these purified living entities of the spiritual world from time immemorial.[citation needed]

According to Ahmadiyya a more direct reference from the Quran is presented by Mirza Tahir Ahmad as a proof that life on other planets may exist according to the Quran. In his book, Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth, he quotes verse 42:29 “And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of whatever living creatures (da’bbah) He has spread forth in both…”; according to this verse there is life in heavens. According to the same verse “And He has the power to gather them together (jam-’i-him) when He will so please”; indicates the bringing together the life on Earth and the life elsewhere in the Universe. The verse does not specify the time or the place of this meeting but rather states that this event will most certainly come to pass whenever God so desires. It should be pointed out that the Arabic term Jam-i-him used to express the gathering event can imply either a physical encounter or a contact through communication.[86]

In Shia Islam the 6th Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq has been quoted as saying that there are living beings on other planets.[citation needed]

When Christianity spread throughout the West, the Ptolemaic system became very widely accepted, and although the Church never issued any formal pronouncement on the question of alien life,[87] at least tacitly, the idea was aberrant. In 1277, the Bishop of Paris, Étienne Tempier, did overturn Aristotle on one point: God could have created more than one world (given His omnipotence). Taking a further step, and arguing that aliens actually existed, remained rare. Notably, Cardinal Nicholas of Kues speculated about aliens on the Moon and Sun.[88]

Early modern period


Giordano Bruno, De l’Infinito Universo et Mondi, 1584

There was a dramatic shift in thinking initiated by the invention of the telescope and the Copernican assault on geocentric cosmology. Once it became clear that the Earth was merely one planet amongst countless bodies in the universe, the extraterrestrial idea moved towards the scientific mainstream. The best known early-modern proponent of such ideas was the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who argued in the 16th century for an infinite Universe in which every star is surrounded by its own planetary system. Bruno wrote that other worlds “have no less virtue nor a nature different to that of our earth” and, like Earth, “contain animals and inhabitants”.[89]

In the early 17th century, the Czech astronomer Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita mused that “if Jupiter has (…) inhabitants (…) they must be larger and more beautiful than the inhabitants of the Earth, in proportion to the [characteristics] of the two spheres”.[90]

In Baroque literature such as The Other World: The Societies and Governments of the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac, extraterrestrial societies are presented as humoristic or ironic parodies of earthly society. The didactic poet Henry More took up the classical theme of the Greek Democritus in “Democritus Platonissans, or an Essay Upon the Infinity of Worlds” (1647). In “The Creation: a Philosophical Poem in Seven Books” (1712), Sir Richard Blackmore observed: “We may pronounce each orb sustains a race / Of living things adapted to the place”. With the new relative viewpoint that the Copernican revolution had wrought, he suggested “our world’s sunne / Becomes a starre elsewhere”. Fontanelle’s “Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds” (translated into English in 1686) offered similar excursions on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, expanding, rather than denying, the creative sphere of a Maker.

The possibility of extraterrestrials remained a widespread speculation as scientific discovery accelerated. William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, was one of many 18th–19th century astronomers convinced that the Solar System, and perhaps others, would be well-populated by alien life. Other luminaries of the period who championed “cosmic pluralism” included Immanuel Kant and Benjamin Franklin. At the height of the Enlightenment, even the Sun and Moon were considered candidates for extraterrestrial inhabitants.

19th century

In 1854, William Whewell, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who popularized the word scientist, speculated that Mars had seas, land and possibly life forms.[citation needed] Speculation about life on Mars increased in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation by some observers of apparent Martian canals — which were however soon found to be optical illusions. Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization.[91] This idea led British writer H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planet’s desiccation.

Spectroscopic analysis of Mars’ atmosphere began in earnest in 1894, when U.S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell showed that neither water nor oxygen were present in the Martian atmosphere.[92] By 1909 better telescopes and the best perihelic opposition of Mars since 1877 conclusively put an end to the canal hypothesis.

The science fiction genre, although not so named during the time, develops during the late 19th century. Jules Verne’s Around the Moon (1870) features a discussion of the possibility of life on the Moon, but with the conclusion that it is barren. Stories involving extraterrestrials are found in e.g. Garrett P. Serviss’s Edison’s Conquest of Mars (1897). The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells was published in 1898 and stands at the beginning of the popular idea of the “Martian invasion” of Earth prominent in 20th century pop culture.

20th century

See also: Space exploration

The Arecibo message is a digital message sent to globular star cluster M13, and is a well-known symbol of human attempts to contact extraterrestrials.

A radio drama version of Wells’ novel broadcast in 1938 over the CBS Radio Network led to outrage because it supposedly suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was in progress. In the wake of the Roswell Incident, conspiracy theories on the presence of extraterrestrials became a widespread phenomenon in the United States during the 1940s and the beginning Space Age during the 1950s, accompanied by a surge of UFO reports. The term UFO itself was coined in 1952 in the context of the enormous popularity of the concept of “flying saucers” in the wake of the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting in 1947. The Majestic 12 documents published in 1982 suggest that there was genuine interest in UFO conspiracy theories in the US government during the 1940s.

The trend to assume that celestial bodies were populated almost by default was tempered as actual probes visited potential alien abodes in the Solar System beginning in the second half of the 20th century, and by the 1970s belief in UFOs had become part of the fringe beliefs associated with the paranormal, New Age, Earth mysteries, Forteana etc. A number of UFO religions developed during the surge in UFO belief during th 1950s to 1970s period, and some, such as Scientology (founded 1953) and Raëlism (founded 1974) remain active into the present. The idea of “paleocontact“, supposing that extraterrestrials (”ancient astronauts“) have visited the Earth in the remote past and left traces in ancient cultures, appears in early 20th century fiction such as The Call of Cthulhu (1926) and the idea came to be established as a notable aspect of the Ufology subculture in the wake of Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? (1968). Alien abduction claims were widespread during the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.

On the scientific side, the possibility of extraterrestrial life on the Moon was decisively ruled out by the 1960s, and during the 1970s it became clear that most of the other bodies of the Solar System do not harbour highly developed life, although the question of primitive life on bodies in the Solar System remains an open question. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman founded the U.S. Planetary Society, partly as a vehicle for SETI studies in 1980, and since the 1990s, systematic search for radio signals attributable to intelligent extraterrestrial life has been ongoing.

In the early 1990s, NASA was set to join in on SETI research with a planned targeted search and all-sky survey. However, Senator Richard Bryan of Nevada cut funding for the project, and no comparable search has taken place since. [93]

Recent history

The failure so far of the SETI program to detect an intelligent radio signal after decades of effort, has at least partially dimmed the prevailing optimism of the beginning of the space age. Notwithstanding, the unproven “belief” in extraterrestrial beings continues to be voiced in pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and in popular folklore, notably “Area 51” and legends. It has become a pop culture trope given less-than-serious treatment in popular entertainment with e.g. the ALF TV series (1986–1990), The X-Files (1993–2002), etc.

The SETI program is not the result of a continuous, dedicated search, but instead utilizes what resources and manpower it can, when it can. Furthermore, the SETI program only searches a limited range of frequencies at any one time.[94]

In the words of SETI’s Frank Drake, “All we know for sure is that the sky is not littered with powerful microwave transmitters”.[95] Drake noted that it is entirely possible that advanced technology results in communication being carried out in some way other than conventional radio transmission. At the same time, the data returned by space probes, and giant strides in detection methods, have allowed science to begin delineating habitability criteria on other worlds, and to confirm that at least other planets are plentiful, though aliens remain a question mark. The Wow! signal, from SETI, remains a speculative debate.

In 2000, geologist and paleontologist Peter Ward and astrobiologist Donald Brownlee published a book entitled Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe.[96] In it, they discussed the Rare Earth hypothesis, in which they claim that Earth-like life is rare in the Universe, while microbial life is common. Ward and Brownlee are open to the idea of evolution on other planets which is not based on essential Earth-like characteristics (such as DNA and carbon).

The possible existence of primitive (microbial) life outside of Earth is much less controversial to mainstream scientists, although, at present, no direct evidence of such life has been found. Indirect evidence has been offered for the current existence of primitive life on Mars. However, the conclusions that should be drawn from such evidence remain in debate.

The Catholic Church has not made a formal ruling on the existence of extraterrestrials. However, writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father José Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, said in 2008 that intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.[97][98]

In September 2010, it was reported that the U.N. General Assembly had appointed Mazlan Othman as their official extraterrestrial liaison by the UK paper The Sunday Times.[99] This claim was later refuted.[100]

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in 2010 warned that humans should not try to contact alien life forms. He warned that aliens might pillage Earth for resources. “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans“, he said.[101] Anthropologist Jared Diamond has expressed similar concerns.[102] Scientists at NASA and Penn State University published a paper in April 2011 addressing the question “Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity?” The paper describes positive, negative and neutral scenarios.[103]

Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at the U.S. Space Flight Center in Alabama, claimed that filaments and other structures in rare meteorites appear to be microscopic fossils of extraterrestrial beings that resemble algae known as cyanobacteria.[104]

See also

Popular culture
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien life
Searches for extraterrestrial life
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aliens
Subjects
Theories

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