From Big Bang to Galactic Civilizations: A Big History Anthology

From Big Bang to Galactic Civilizations: A Big History Anthology

Edited by Barry Rodrigue, Leonid Grinin and Andrey Korotayev
2015, xii + 358pp, Hb
ISBN: 978-93-84082-45-1

Big History is a new field that has been developing rapidly around the world. What is Big History? According to its professional definition: Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life and Humanity by using the best empirical evidence and scholarly methods. Big History deals with the universes grand narrative of 13.8 billion years and provides a connection between our past, present and future. It encompasses all forms of existence and all time scales. The present collection is divided into three volumes and is the first international and comprehensive anthology of Big History. In volume one Our Place in the Universe: An Introduction to Big History our existence is regarded from different points of view: as a history of the universe, as a philosophy, and as a factor in the life of people. This edition will challenge and excite your vision of your own life and the new discoveries going on around us. Together with the authors, who come from all the inhabited continents of our planet, readers will engage in a fascinating trip into the depths of time and space, and we hope they will join us in coming to an understanding of our origins and our future.

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Contents

Preface: The Sphere of Big History

Barry Rodrigue, Leonid Grinin and Andrey Korotayev Introduction: From Big Bang to Galactic Civilizations

Part I: Big History as a History of the Universe

1. Roberta Bondar The Shadow of Night . . . and No Boundaries

2. G. Siegfried Kutter A Brief Account of the Science of Big History

3. Walter Alvarez, Alessandro Montanari and David Shimabukuro Ex Libro Lapidum Historia Mundi: Reading History Written in Rocks

4. David Christian History and Time

5. Hubert Reeves Origins: A Question of Cosmic History

6. George Ellis Emergence of Complexity and Causality: Physics Transcended

Part II: Big History as Philosophy and Methodology

7. Leonid Grinin, Andrey Korotayev, Robert Carneiro and Fred Spier Evolutionary Mega-Paradigms: Potential, Problems, Perspectives

8. Graeme Snooks The Cosmos and the Logos: A Realist Theory of Life’s Emergence, Evolution and Future

9. Akop Nazaretyan Mega-Evolution and Big History

10. Robert King Is there a Limit to the System?: Philosophical Presuppositions in Systematic Ontology, Epistemology and Criticism

Part III: Big History as an Active Life Position

11. Carlos Londoño Sulkin, with Antonio Vélez Antonio Vélez: A Champion of Big History

12. Barry Rodrigue A New Design for Living

13. Alexander Mirkovic The Real End of History

14. Ananta Kumar Giri Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: Cultivating Planetary Conversations

15. Nigel Hughes The Change We Can Believe In: Ten Facts about the Evolution of the Earth-Life System and Their Relevance to Current Global Environmental Change

Part IV: Big History and the Life of People

16. Sun Yue The Tao of ‘Big History’ in China: Chinese Traditions

17. Craig Benjamin A Little Big History of Jericho

18. Esther Quaedackers A Little Big History of Tiananmen

19. Lowell Qustafson Big Politics

20. David Hookes The Evolution of Information Systems: From the Big Bang to the Era of Globalization

Bibliography

Notes on Editors and Contributors

Index


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