The Concept of Fractal Cosmos: Ii. Modern Cosmology

In the previous article (Grujić 2001, to be referred to as I) we examined Anaxagoras’ worldview and compared his hierarchical cosmos with that of Democritus. We analyzed a number of possible interpretations of his cosmology and argued that his ideas could be put in terms of the modern concept of fractal structuring of the material objects. The idea of hierarchical structuring of the material world is an elaborate concept of a simple general principle that has underlined almost all cosmologies in the ancient world, not only European one, the assertion that microcosmos is equivalent to macrocosmos. This postulate, on its part, stems from the principle of economy, that has been best formulated by William Occam (Occam’s razor). In practical social sphere all ages have witnessed various realizations of this ”equivalence principle”, which has been best epitomized by temples conceived as miniatures of the entire cosmos, as the most conspicuous case of the gothic cathedrals shows. In the next chapter we shall see how a number of European thinkers took up the idea in the most primitive form. Then, in the following chapters we consider the fractal concept within the last century cosmology. Next, we present some modern concepts of the hierarchical universe, and discuss some aspects of the observational evidence and its possible interpretations, as appears the subject of the current controversies. Finally, we discuss the fractal paradigm from the epistemological point of view and outline future possible developments of the subject.