Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr.& Govind Menon ----- "Cosmos and Eros: Boethius's Cosmology and Post-CopernicanDiscoveries"


Abstract

Many studies exist in which the sources of Boethius's scientific understanding of the cosmos are examined. This study reverses that perspective by examining Boethius's scientific understanding as it presages the cosmological observations and theories of Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein. This paper will show that Boethius shares a geometric understanding of the cosmos with Copernicus and Einstein, and that he shares a view of universal gravitation with Newton. It is in the area of gravitation that Boethius adds an element of Eros [actually Amor] to his cosmology. In general, the study indicates that Boethius thought in categories similar to those of Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein, but that the technological observations available to him were not yet so advanced as those available to the other thinkers.

Key Words
Western cosmology, Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, Euclid, Albert Einstein, Newton, gravitation, Eros