Project Gutenberg 2011-05-31 Public domain in the USA. 146 Whewell, William 1794 1866 Whewell, W. (William) Hitchcock, Edward 1793 1864 05021649 The Plurality of Worlds Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Stephen H. Sentoff and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) "The Plurality of Worlds" by William Whewell is a scientific treatise written in the mid-19th century. The work explores the idea of whether other planets and celestial bodies are inhabited, engaging with contemporary astronomical discoveries and their implications for philosophical and religious thought. The author addresses the potential conflict between scientific knowledge about the vast universe and traditional religious beliefs regarding the uniqueness of Earth in God's creation. The opening of the essay sets the stage for a philosophical exploration of humanity's place in the universe, referencing the awe inspired by the night sky and the ancient question posed by the Psalmist: “What is man, that you are mindful of him?” Whewell considers modern astronomical knowledge, arguing that the multitude of celestial bodies prod the mind to inquire about possible other forms of life and civilization beyond Earth. He presents a thoughtful examination of how these discoveries might challenge existing religious beliefs, while proposing that an understanding of God's care for creation can expand to include the vastness of the universe. Overall, the beginning establishes a nuanced dialogue between science and religion, setting the stage for a deeper inquiry into humanity's significance in a potentially inhabited cosmos. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Plurality of worlds QB Text Browsing: Science - Astronomy Browsing: Science - General 640820 640829 2024-09-15T10:52:56.766185 2023-09-16T04:42:01.327940 text/html text/html 644467 2021-01-07T19:39:33 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 270465 2021-01-07T19:39:33 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 335251 2024-09-15T10:53:05.425617 application/epub+zip 342744 2024-09-15T10:52:58.802145 application/epub+zip 286325 2024-09-15T10:52:57.650140 application/epub+zip 556411 2024-09-15T10:53:10.537572 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 513410 2024-09-15T10:53:04.393152 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 457493 2022-09-16T14:35:16.039529 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 587200 586967 2024-09-15T10:52:55.936201 2023-09-16T04:42:00.567998 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 586973 2021-01-07T19:39:33 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 203658 2021-01-07T19:39:33 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 587096 2021-01-07T19:39:33 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 203600 2021-01-07T19:39:33 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20508 2024-09-15T10:53:10.682574 application/rdf+xml 12820 2024-09-15T10:52:58.028160 image/jpeg 3760 2024-09-15T10:52:57.840161 image/jpeg 317543 2024-09-15T10:52:56.824165 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia