World (universe)

Evolution of the Representation of the world in occident

The Représentation of the world is the whole of the Données Géodésique S, Astronomique S, Géographique S, natural S, Historique S, symbolic systems or monumental, and of course also Linguistique S, which takes part in the life of a human Groupe. For the geodetic representation:

During Antiquity: already an evolution of the Representation S

See also: Figure of the Earth in Antiquity

In the oldest times of the History, the world was included/understood like the whole of the grounds and the known navigable zones. One did not imagine whereas the world could be differently than flat. Indeed, the horizon appears with the human being like a straight line.

In the beginnings of the Greek Civilization, one thought, in particular at the Ionian school of Milet, that the ground was punt. The Géographe Anaximandre imagined it like a drum, and gave even an estimate its thickness.

Then, starting from Pythagore, and of Parménide (Greek Philosopher presocratic of the Eleatic school), one understood that the Ground was Sphérique.

Plato and Aristote, and the majority of the large Greek philosophers of the traditional period, and the later periods, lined up with this spherical Représentation of the Ground.

Hérodote remained about it with a Représentation punt.

Aristarque de Samos was among the only ones to suggest that the Earth could turn around the Sun (Héliocentrisme).

Beginning of the the Middle Ages: return to a Representation of the Earth punt

See also: Figure of the Earth to the Middle Ages

With the Great invasions, the living conditions of the men of the Any beginning of the Middle Ages became difficult, and hardly allowed to be concerned with speculative sciences. The Représentation S Sphérique S of the Ground had had courses at some Philosophe S Greek “pagan” since Pythagore. But the thinkers Christian S, such as for example the traveller Cosmas of Alexandria at the 6th century, did not grant any more a credit to these pagan theories. With the representation known as TO which took again the data of the Genesis until the dispersion of the people after Noah, one returned to the Homeric design of a world in the wafer shape, surrounded by Oceans in the shape of band. Instead of being laid out around the Sea " méditerrannée" where Greek civilization had taken its rises, the three continents of the world were centred instead of their junction in Asia Mineure, with the supposed site of old the Éden where the World had started, with that of the stranding of the Arche of Noah, in the areas of the Sacred History and the Life of Jesus.

In fact, nothing in the Genesis was opposed to a design Sphérique of the Earth, and Jesus had never approached this kind of considerations.

In the East, Byzance, and perhaps also Arménie, remained a hearth of conservation of ancient Greek manuscripts, taking over Alexandria partly. The well-read men of the Jewish communities established in Mésopotamie, continued undoubtedly to practice the art of astronomical calculation that old the Chaldéens had pushed so far. With Bède Worthy the (9th century), the Occident starts to resume in Latin the study of sciences (see Science of the Middle Ages) with the Liberal arts and the calculation of the Temps (Comput).

Perhaps during this time, the Perses, which were with the crossroads of the Greece, of the India, the Egypt, and the Mésopotamie, preserved the model of a spherical ground to reconcile the astronomical observations, the comput and old geographical knowledge.

With the conquest of Iran by the Moslem S, there was as from the 10th century, of the astronomers arabo-Moslems, generally Perses, which translated and adapted into Arabic the treaties of the ancient authors and who developed their sciences in a thorough way.

This situation will perdura until the 12th century approximately, time of exchanges Culturel S more profitable.

Low the Middle Ages: Spherical Representation simplified

The contacts with the Arabo-Moslems made take Conscience with the Occident with their delays in the scientific discipline. Albert Large the and Roger Bacon, which introduced at the 13th century the Connaissance resulting from sciences Greek and Arab into the Western Université S, had Conscience that the Ground was Sphérique. One came from there to develop philosophical lesson much more elaborate, integrating the Philosophie Aristote in particular. Ptolémée became the matter reference Géographique. However, the Géographie was not truly taught.

The Conscience of the form Sphérique of the Ground was accompanied by a Représentation simplified emerged grounds: Before the voyages of Christophe Colomb, for example, one generally thought whom the emerged grounds occupied only the northern Hemisphere, and were located in a sector of approximately 180°.

This Représentation was the result of the accounts of the missions of Franciscain S (Guillaume de Rubrouck…) and of Dominican S in Asia (empire Mongolian especially, where one sought to renew contact with nestoriens), but also China, and especially of the return voyage by Mer of Marco Polo, which proved that one could circumvent the Asia by the south. The south of the Africa was largely ignored.

One took Conscience that the Caspian Sea did not extend until north from the Globe.

Rebirth of the 15th 16th centuries: a New world

See also: Figure of the Earth to the Rebirth

As from the 14th century, one felt well that it was possible theoretically to make it tower of the Ground.

The Livre of the wonders of the world writes between (1355-1357) by the Explorateur Jean de Mandeville after a voyage 34 years in the Far East, implied the possibility of a circumnavigation. Even if Jean de Mandeville were presented in the form of an English knight, and beyond its “impostures”, the drafting of its work in three versions and 250 specimens, then its diffusion in a whole of vernacular languages, spread in the less cultivated company of Occident these possibilities of circumnavigation, and were not without influencing some Christophe Colomb, during his youth.

Other references at that time were Marin of Tyr, Toscanelli, the Imago mundi of the cardinal Pierre d' Ailly. However, one did not know with exactitude the value of the terrestrial ray (Ptolémée and Ératosthène diverged on this point) and, of course, one did not imagine the existence of other continents only the Europe, the Africa and the Asia. Christophe Colomb had a specimen of the Imago mundi .

In 1491, Martin Behaim worked out the first Globe.

The voyages of Vasco de Gama (skirting of Africa), of Christophe Colomb (Central America), of Magellan (Round the world tour), of Jacques Cartier (Canada) brought a material change of Représentation:

new a Unintermitting, the America. It is known that Christophe Colomb was not probably aware to have discovered a new continent (Leif Ericsson had reached it towards the An millet), but quickly, it was understood that they were new grounds, that the Vosgean Gymnase called, with Saint-Dié, America, in the honor of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1507) (thus the town of Saint-Dié is godmother of the America, and regularly accommodate international Congrès of Géographie).
one starts to foresee the Oceania by the first round the world tours,
of the precise details on contours of the emerged grounds, resulting from the statements Cartographique S,
a renewal of the methods and techniques of Cartographie, with for example the Projection of Mercator, which appeared at the 16th century.

Thus the large travellers of 14th and the 15th centuries Marco Polo, Vasco de Gama, Christophe Colomb, showed that the world was vaster than it was believed, with the discovery of this “Nouveau world”.

Traditional time: Héliocentrisme

In Occident (after the Astronome S Chinese), the Révolution copernician showed that the Ground was not the center of the Univers, within the meaning of the forces of the Physique.

Copernic thought that the Ground describes a circular Trajectoire around the Sun.
According to the observations, one saw that the trajectory of the Earth was a ellipse with light a orbital Excentricité: the ground follows an orbital movement around the Sun. Johannes Kepler described the rules governing its movement.
Galileo described the Mouvement uniformly accelerated, and made with its Telescope of many observations in the Solar system (the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, sunspots…).
After the judgment of Galileo in 1633 (for its work Dialogo will sopra I due massimi sistemi LED mondo ( Dialog on the two great systems of the world ), Descartes renonça to publish its Traité world and light , and conceived its philosophical system ( Discourse on Method in 1637, Méditations on philosophy first in 1641…).
Isaac Newton discovered the mathematical rules which govern the gravitational force responsible (in the broad outlines) for the movement of planets of the solar system (1687).

One could imagine others Planet S accommodating a Vie similar to that which exists on Ground.

Such a change of Représentation was not without causing certain difficulties in the relations between science and faith. It is certain that the Interprétation too literal of the cosmological passages of the Old Testament (or the Métaphysique of Aristote) involved certain incomprehension.

Contemporary time: stakes on a world scale

With the advent of the means of Transport and modern Communication, the relative Perception of the size of the world is reduced: any part of the world is accessible in a Temps in short on a scale Human life.

It is possible to go in China (for example) since the Europe by Avion in about fifteen hour S. Faire the round the world tour is summarized seemingly with a problem of Logistique.
In addition, the network Internet makes it possible to dialog with a person contrary to the ground almost instantaneously.

In parallel, the size of the observable Univers by the astronomical means contemporary (Radio telescope S, space telescopes) appears infinitely larger to us than at the time of the Lumières: the Sun is a star among billion in the Milky Way. However, there is not a direct proof which there exists a stellar Système as advanced as the Solar system with its eight Planet S. One either did not find a Planet where there is the Vie. Even if one succeeded in detecting planets apart from the Solar system (thus which revolve around an other star that the Sun, in October 2006, one counted some more than 200), it is quite difficult to know if the Vie exists on these " Exoplanète s", and the chance that the Humanité reaches one day it seems null.

In addition, the World population is of more than 6 billion individuals, instead of 700 million approximately at the time of the Lumières.

There thus exists serious Enjeu X of access to the Natural resources (Pétrole, energy, Raw materials, Eau), and of distribution of the Richesse S on the ground, with the social problems that poses, and the stakes Géopolitique S that represents.

The the United States took Conscience at the end of the Années 1980 that their supremacy on the world was threatened by rise to power of the China. The book the ground is punt: A short history of XXIe century of Thomas L. Friedman, Laurent Bury, made become aware with the American people of the need for mobilizing itself around a federator project. This type of work illustrates the power Symbolique Représentation S of the world on the social phenomena.

Languages

There exists a very great diversity of Langue S in the world (see Dictionnaire of the languages). Among the 6000 known languages, approximately 2000 are spoken on the African continent .

The languages belong to linguistic Familles, inside which one finds certain affinities which correspond to the Culture S of these countries.

In much of country of the world, there exists not only a Official language, that of the government and Droit, but there exist also regional Langues, transborder Langues,… which translate the Cultural diversity and belong to the world Cultural heritage.

The phenomenon of Universalization, carried by the development of the Fabric and the international institutions, requires to manage the Multilinguisme. On the American continent, mainly four languages coexist (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French). Inter-American seminars of Gestion of the languages took place in order to implement concretely Politiques linguistics on this continent.

Certains States, which comprises several nations like the Canada, manages the Bilinguisme on the level of their government.

All the Langues of the European Union have a precise statute. In addition to the twenty-three Official languages, the European Union recognizes, in theory, the regional Langues and transborder, as well as the other minority languages which would be being recognized like Official language by one of the States.

On the level of the world organizations, only some languages are recognized like Official languages. For example the six official languages of the United Nations are the English, the French, the Spanish , the Arab , the Chinese, the Russian . Those of the Funds international currency and the World Trade organization is English.

The preeminence taken for a few years by the commercial and financial questions compared to the policy and with the culture, have made that the Working language becomes English of businesses in all the international agencies. This character of Common language is found today in the Gouvernance of Internet.

Quotation

“Today we receive three different or contrary educations: those of our fathers, those of our Masters, that of the world . What one says to us in the last shift all the ideas of the first”. Montesquieu

See too

Our world

List of the countries of the world
List of the countries of the world by continent
World population
world Citizenship
Wonder of the world
Free world

Universalization

Universalization
world Government
Altermondialisation
Effects of universalization on the environment

Geography and Exploration S

Universe according to the Astronomy and the Astrophysical

In the fiction

imaginary World

External bonds

Information, charts and statistics on the world
Follow on line the evolution of the world population
Carte World - worldmapfinder.com
Histoire of Sciences: does the center of the Universe, Sky & Space radio, Jean-François Robredo
the Universe have a form? , Sky & Space radio, Roland Lehoucq

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