In Miletus, about 550 B.C., together with our world-picture cosmology
was born. This book tells the story. In Part One the reader is
introduced in the archaic world-picture of a flat earth with the cupola
of the celestial vault onto which the celestial bodies are attached. One
of the subjects treated in that context is the riddle of the tilted
celestial axis. This part also contains an extensive chapter on archaic
astronomical instruments. Part Two shows how Anaximander (610-547 B.C.)
blew up this archaic world-picture and replaced it by a new one that is
essentially still ours. He taught that the celestial bodies orbit at
different distances and that the earth floats unsupported in space. This
makes him the founding father of cosmology. Part Three discusses topics
that completed the new picture described by Anaximander. Special
attention is paid to the confrontation between Anaxagoras and Aristotle
on the question whether the earth is flat or spherical, and on the
battle between Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus on the question whether
the universe is finite or infinite.