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Wellsprings
cosmology

Eternity of the World

ἀΐδιος κόσμος

Did the universe have a beginning, or has it always existed and will it last forever? — one of antiquity's deepest and most consequential disputes.

Also: eternity of the cosmos · everlasting world · aei on

The question of whether the cosmos is eternal and indestructible or created and destined to perish divided ancient thinkers fundamentally. Pythagoras and later the Stoics held that the world exists eternally and will never be destroyed, while Epicurus argued that the cosmos had a beginning and will eventually end. This disagreement hinged on whether the universe required a cause or arose necessarily from itself.

The stakes were practical and theological. If the world is eternal, as Stoics believed, it operates in endless cycles of creation and destruction, making fate and cosmic order inescapable. If it is mortal and perishable, as some materialists contended, then the cosmos is constructed from parts that themselves emerge and decay in time, suggesting no divine permanence underpins reality. This debate shaped how philosophers understood causation, the divine, and humanity's place in a transient or eternal order.

Where this idea shows up

35 Greek sources·11 Jewish-canon citations

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