Creation: a Multifaceted and Thematic Concept in the Construction of Modern Cosmology – from Friedmann’s Creation of the Universe to the Steady-State’s Continuous Creation

Article
Open Access
by João Barbosa1
1 Centre for Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/27/2
Received: 9 July 2021 / Accepted: 5 August 2021 / Published: 1 October 2021

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Abstract

This article focuses on the multifaceted and thematic nature expressed by the concept of creation in 20th-century cosmology, namely in the construction of the big bang cosmology and its rival, the steadystate cosmology. Regarding the approaches of three of the main founders of big bang cosmology (Friedmann, Lemaître, and Gamow), we can find, in an explicit or implicit way, two different forms of creation – creation from nothing or creation from shapeless matter. On the opposite side, suggested by the proponents of steady-state cosmology (Hoyle, Bondi, and Gold), we can find another form of creation – the continuous creation of matter. It is proposed that the multifaceted concept of creation, due to the wide interest it aroused and the intensity of cosmological debates it provoked, as well as its historical longevity and its disciplinary and cultural transversality, may be recognized as a thema.

Keywords: creation, creation from nothing, creation from shapeless matter, continuous creation of matter, big bang cosmology, steady-state cosmology, thema

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Barbosa, João (2021) Creation: a Multifaceted and Thematic Concept in the Construction of Modern Cosmology – from Friedmann’s Creation of the Universe to the Steady-State’s Continuous Creation. Philosophy and Cosmology, Volume 27, 22-33. https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/27/2
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