Macrocosm and microcosm

"Macrocosm" redirects here. For Star Trek episode, see Macrocosm (Star Trek: Voyager). For album, see Macrocosm (album).

By looking down, I see up. Part of a pair of illustrations in Tycho Brahe's Astronomiæ instauratæ Mechanica depicting his understanding of the connection between macrocosm and microcosm.

By looking up, I see down.

Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level). In the system the midpoint is Man, who summarizes the cosmos.

Macrocosm/microcosm is a Greek compound of μακρο- macro- and μικρο- micro-, which are Greek respectively for "large" and "small", and the word κόσμος kósmos which means "order" as well as "world" or "ordered world."

Today, the concept of microcosm has been dominated by sociology to mean a small group of individuals whose behavior is typical of a larger social body encompassing it. A microcosm can be seen as a special kind of epitome. Conversely, a macrocosm is a social body made of smaller compounds. In physics, scale invariance describes the same phenomenon, although the universe as a whole is not physically scale invariant according to the modern understanding. However, scale invariance does appear in some physical systems, such as electrical breakdown.

See also

• Anthropic principle
• Arcology
• Emerald Tablet
• Family as a model for the state
• False cause
• Fractal theory
• Nanoeconomics
• Rose Cross and Alchemy
• Surat Shabda Yoga

References

1. Republic, Plato, trans. By B. Jowett M.A., Vintage Books, NY. § 435, pg 151

Bibliography

• Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy, G. P. Conger, NY, 1922, which includes a survey of critical discussions up to 1922.

External links

• Cosmos - an Illustrated Dimensional Journey from microcosmos to macrocosmos - from Digital Nature Agency