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[[File:Robert Fludd 1.gif|thumb|upright=2|From [[Robert Fludd]], ''Utriusque cosmi historia'', Oppenheim/Frankfurt, 1617–1621.]]
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The '''microcosm-macrocosm analogy''' refers to the view according to which there is a structural similarity between the [[human being]] (the [[Wiktionary:microcosm|microcosm]], i.e., the ''small order'' or the ''small universe'') and the [[cosmos]] as a whole (the [[Wiktionary:macrocosm|macrocosm]], i.e., the ''great order'' or the ''great universe'').<ref>The terms microcosm and macrocosm derive from [[ancient Greek]] μικρός κόσμος (''mikrós kósmos'') and μακρός κόσμος (''makrós kósmos''), which may mean 'small universe' and 'great universe', but whose primary meaning is 'small order' and 'great order', respectively (see [[Wiktionary:κόσμος#Ancient_Greek|wiktionary]]; cf. Allers 1944, pp. 320-321, note 5).</ref> Given this fundamental analogy, truths about the nature of the cosmos as a whole may be inferred from truths about human nature, and vice versa.<ref>On the macrocosm and the microcosm in general, see, e.g., Conger 1922; Allers 1944; Barkan 1975.</ref>
[[File:Vitruvian macrocosm.jpg|thumb|[[Robert Fludd]]'s illustration of man as the microcosm within the universal macrocosm. Fludd states that "Man is a whole world of its own, called microcosm for it displays a miniature pattern of all the parts of the universe. Thus the head is related to the Empyreal, the chest to the ethereal heaven and the belly to the elementary substance."<ref>[[Robert Fludd]] in ''Utriusque Cosmic Historia'', II; quoted by [[Pierre A. Riffard]] in ''Dictionnaire de l’ésotérisme'', Paris: Payot, 1983, 34.</ref>]]
[[File:Harmonia macrocosmi cum microcosmi.jpg|thumb|Macrocosm and Microcosm from Tobias Schutz 'Harmonia macrocosmi cum microcosmi' (1654)]]
[[File:Despiciendo suspicio.PNG|250px|thumb|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.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}]]
[[File:Suspiciendo despicio.PNG|250px|thumb|By looking up, I see down.]]


One important corollary of this view is that the cosmos as a whole may be considered to be alive, and thus to have a mind or soul (the [[Anima mundi|world soul]]). Moreover, this cosmic mind or soul was often thought to be divine, most notably by the [[Stoic physics#Soul|Stoics]] and those who were influenced by them, such as the authors of the ''[[Hermetica]]''.<ref>On the Stoics, see Hahm 1977, 63ff.; on the ''Hermetica'', see Festugière, André-Jean 1944-1954. ''La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste''. Vol. I-IV. Paris: Gabalda, vol. I, pp. 92-94, 125-131.</ref> Hence, it was sometimes inferred that the human mind or soul too was divine in nature.
'''Macrocosm and microcosm''' refers to a vision of [[cosmos]] where the part (microcosm) reflects the whole (macrocosm) and vice versa. It is a form of [[recursion]] which is a feature present in many esoteric models of philosophy, both ancient and modern.<ref name = Riffard>[[Pierre A. Riffard]], ''Dictionnaire de l’ésotérisme'', Paris: Payot, 1983, 34.</ref> It is closely associated with [[Hermeticism]] and underlies practices such as [[astrology]], [[alchemy]] and [[sacred geometry]] with its premise of "[[As above, so below]]".<ref name = Faivre>[[Antoine Faivre]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HXk9lnPx0_MC&pg=PA12 Access to Western esotericism]'', State University of New York Press, 1994, 10–11.</ref>


Apart from this important psychological and noetic (i.e., related to the [[nous|mind]]) application, the analogy was also applied to [[Human body|human physiology]].<ref>See, e.g., Kranz 1938, pp. 130-133.</ref> For example, the [[Philosophical cosmology|cosmological]] functions of the [[Classical planet|seven classical planets]] were sometimes taken to be analogous to the physiological functions of human [[Organ (anatomy)|organs]], such as the [[heart]], the [[spleen]], the [[liver]], the [[stomach]], etc.<ref>See the drawing shown on the right (from [[Robert Fludd]]'s ''Utriusque cosmi historia'', 1617–1621), which correlates the sun (considered to be a planet in the [[geocentric model]]) with the heart.</ref>
The philosophy was conceptualized by [[Pythagoras]], who saw the cosmos and the body as a harmonious unity.<ref>{{Cite book|date=2017-07-28|title=Harmony in Healing|pages=15–16|doi=10.4324/9780203790281|last=Garber|first=James J.|isbn=9780203790281}}</ref>
The idea was re-articulated about a century later by [[Plato]],<ref>{{cite web |last=McDonough |first=Richard |title=Plato: Organicism |url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/platoorg/#SH2b |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=6 September 2019}}</ref> and again during the [[Renaissance]], by [[Leonardo da Vinci]], who noted common features between the natural world and the human body such as the circulation of liquids and basic branching mechanisms.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wallace |first=Robert |title=The World of Leonardo: 1452–1519 |publisher=Time-Life Books |location=New York |year=1972|orig-year=1966 |p=103}}</ref>


Th view itself is ancient, and may be found in many philosophical systems world-wide, such as for example in [[ancient Mesopotamia]],<ref>Svärd and Nokso-Koivisto 2014.</ref>, in [[ancient Iran]],<ref>Götze 1923; Duchesne-Guillemin 1956.</ref> or in ancient [[Chinese philosophy]].<ref>Raphals, Lisa 2020. [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/chinese-phil-medicine/ "Chinese Philosophy and Chinese Medicine"] in: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition)''.</ref> However, the terms microcosm and macrocosm refer more specifically to the analogy as it was developed in [[ancient Greek philosophy]] and its [[Medieval philosophy|medieval]] and [[Renaissance philosophy|early modern]] descendants.
In modern [[sociology]], the concept of microcosm has been predominantly used to describe 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.


In contemporary usage, the terms microcosm and macrocosm are also employed to refer to any smaller system that is representative of a larger one, and vice versa.
The macrocosm-microcosm principal is also a key element to [[systems theory]]. An example is how the [[DNA]] of a living creature is contained in every cell, and which in turn can be used to determine the genetic make-up of the whole creature.<ref name="Beerel">{{cite journal |last1=Beerel |first1=Annabel |title=Critical Systems Thinking |journal=Leadership and Change Management |date=2009 |doi=10.4135/9781446269336.n2 |url=https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/27451_02_Beerel_Ch_02.pdf}}</ref> The concept has also been used specifically in [[cybernetics]]. Reji M. Issac of [[BPC College Piravom]] claims that through [[cybernetics]] it is possible to "generate a key point of microcosm symbol which can reach up to macrocosm world and can explain about its control" and so realise [[Herbert Brun]]'s definition of cybernetics as "a science to cure all temporary truth about eternal triteness".<ref name="Issac">{{cite journal |last1=Issac |first1=Reji M. |title=Use of Cybernetics in Business Transformation of Data Driven Societies |date=2018 |doi=10.13140/RG.2.2.17196.82561 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335227921_Use_of_Cybernetics_in_Business_Transformation_of_Data_Driven_Societies?channel=doi&linkId=5d58e213a6fdccb7dc4578ce&showFulltext=true |access-date=13 November 2020}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Napoli, 1969) - BEIC 6353768.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Zeno of Citium]] (c. 334–262 BCE), founder of the Stoic school of philosophy.]]
===Antiquity===

Among [[Ancient Greek philosophy|ancient Greek]] and [[Hellenistic philosophy|Hellenistic]] philosophers, notable proponents of the microcosm-macrocosm analogy included [[Anaximander]] (c. 610 – c. 546 BCE),<ref>See, e.g., Allers 1944.</ref> [[Plato]] (c. 428 or 424 – c. 348 BCE),<ref>See especially Olerud 1951.</ref> the [[Hippocratic Corpus|Hippocratic authors]] (late fifth or early fourth century BCE and onwards),<ref>See Kranz 1938; Schluderer 2018.</ref> and the [[Stoic physics|Stoics]] (third century BCE and onwards).<ref>See Hahm 1977, 63ff.</ref> In later periods, the analogy was especially prominent in the works of those philosophers who were heavily influenced by Platonic and Stoic thought, such as [[Philo of Alexandria]] (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE),<ref>See, e.g., Runia, David T. 1986. ''Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato''. Leiden: Brill, pp. 87, 133, 157, 211, 259, 278, 282, 315, 324, 339, 388, 465-466.</ref> the authors of the early Greek ''[[Hermetica]]'' (c. 100 BCE – c. 300 CE),<ref>See Festugière, André-Jean 1944-1954. ''La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste''. Vol. I-IV. Paris: Gabalda, vol. I, pp. 92-94, 125-131.</ref> and the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]] (third century CE and onwards).<ref>See, e.g., Wilberding, James 2006. ''Plotinus’ Cosmology: A Study of Ennead II.1 (40). Text, Translation, and Commentary''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 53-56.</ref>

===Middle Ages===

[[Medieval philosophy]] was generally dominated by [[Aristotelianism|Aristotle]], who had posited a fundamental and unsurmountable difference between the region below the moon (the [[Sublunary sphere|sublunary world]], consisting of the [[Classical element#Greece|four elements]]) and the region above the moon (the superlunary world, consisting of a [[Aether (classical element)|fifth element]]). Nevertheless, the microcosm-macrocosm analogy was adopted by a wide variety of medieval thinkers, most notably by [[alchemy|alchemists]] such as those writing under the name of [[Jabir ibn Hayyan]] (c. 850–950 CE),<ref>Kraus, Paul 1942-1943. ''Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque''. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale, vol. 2, pp. 47, 50.</ref> by the anonymous [[Shi'ite]] philosophers known as the [[Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity|Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ]] ("The Brethren of Purity", c. 900–1000 CE),<ref>See, e.g., Widengren 1980; Nokso-Koivisto 2014; Krinis 2016.</ref> by the [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian]] mystic [[Ibn Arabi]] (1165–1240),<ref>Aminrazavi, Mehdi 2021. [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/arabic-islamic-mysticism/ "Mysticism in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy"] in: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition)''.</ref> and by the German cardinal [[Nicholas of Cusa]] (1401–1464).<ref>Miller, Clyde Lee 2017. [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/cusanus/ "Cusanus, Nicolaus [Nicolas of Cusa]"] in: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition)''.</ref>

===Renaissance===
[[File:Paracelsus.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|left|[[Paracelsus]] (1494–1541)]]
The revival of [[Hermeticism]] and [[Neoplatonism]] in the [[Renaissance]], both of which had reserved a prominent place for the microcosm-macrocosm analogy, also led to a marked rise in popularity of the latter. Some of the most notable proponents of the concept in this period include [[Marsilio Ficino]] (1433–1499), [[Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa]] (1486–1535), [[Franciscus Patricius|Francesco Patrizi]] (1529–1597), [[Giordano Bruno]] (1548–1600), and [[Tommaso Campanella]] (1568–1639).<ref>See the discussion in Allers 1944, pp. 386-401.</ref> It was also central to the new medical theories propounded by the Swiss physician [[Paracelsus]] (1494–1541) and his many [[Paracelsianism|followers]], most notably [[Robert Fludd]] (1574–1637).<ref>Debus, Allen G. 1965. ''The English Paracelsians''. London: Oldbourne, pp. 19, 41-42, 86, 114-123, ''et passim''.</ref><br><br>


==See also==
==See also==

{{cols|colwidth=20em}}
* [[As above, so below]] (popular [[Hermeticism|Hermetic]] maxim often taken to be a reference to the microcosm-macrocosm analogy)
* [[Anthropic principle]]
* [[Correspondence (theology)|Correspondence]] (a similar concept expounded by [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], 1688–1772)
* [[Arcology]]
* [[Stoic physics]]
* [[Correspondence (theology)]], a similar concept expounded by Emanuel Swedenborg
* [[Geist#Weltgeist|Weltgeist]]
* ''[[Emerald Tablet]]''
* [[Anima mundi|World soul]]
* [[Family as a model for the state]]
* [[Fractal theory]]
* [[Nanoeconomics]]
* [[Olam katan]]
* [[Rosicrucian#Rose Cross: Alchemy and Divine Sciences of Healing .26 of the Stars|Rose Cross and Alchemy]]
* [[Surat Shabd Yoga]]
{{colend}}


==References==
==References==
Line 33: Line 37:


==Further reading==
==Further reading==
* ''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.
* Plato, ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', trans. By B. Jowett M.A., Vintage Books, NY. § 435, pg 151


* [[Rudolf Allers|Allers, Rudolf]] 1944. “Microcosmus: From Anaximandros to Paracelsus” in: ''Traditio'', 2, pp. 319-407.
==External links==
* [[Leonard Barkan|Barkan, Leonard]] 1975. ''Nature’s Work of Art: The Human Body as Image of the World''. London/New Haven: Yale University Press.
{{Collier's Poster|Microcosm and Macrocosm}}
* Conger, George Perrigo 1922. ''Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy''. New York: Columbia University Press.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080412094332/http://www.shekpvar.net/~dna/Publications/Cosmos/cosmos.html Cosmos – an Illustrated Dimensional Journey from microcosmos to macrocosmos] – from Digital Nature Agency
* [[Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin|Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques]] 1956. “Persische weisheit in griechischem gewande?” in: ''Harvard Theological Review'', 49(2), pp. 115-122.
* [[Albrecht Goetze|Götze, Albrecht]] 1923. “Persische Weisheit in griechischem Gewande: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Mikrokosmos-Idee” in: ''Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik'', 2, pp. 60-98, 167-177.
* Hahm, David E. 1977. ''The Origins of Stoic Cosmology''. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
* Olerud, Anders 1951. ''L’idée de macrocosmos et de microcosmos dans le ‘Timée’ de Platon: Étude de mythologie comparée''. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.
* [[Walther Kranz|Kranz, Walther]] 1938. “Kosmos und Mensch in der Vorstellung frühen Griechentums” in: ''Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse'', 2, 7, pp. 121-161.
* Krinis, Ehud 2016. “The Philosophical and Theosophical Interpretations of the Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Ikhwān al-ṣafā’ and Jewish Medieval Writings” in: Amir-Moezzi et al. ''L'Ésotérisme shi'ite, ses racines et ses prolongements''. Turnhout: Brepols.
* Nokso-Koivisto, Inka 2014. ''Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Rasāʾil Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ and Certain Related Texts''. Unpubl. PhD diss., University of Helsinki.
* Schluderer, Laura Rosella 2018. “Imitating the Cosmos: The Role of Microcosm-Macrocosm Relationships in the Hippocratic Treatise On Regimen” in: ''Classical Quarterly'', 68(1), pp. 31-52.
* Svärd, Saana and Nokso-Koivisto, Inka 2014. “The Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Mesopotamian and Medieval Arabic History of Science” in: Lindstedt, Ilkka and Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko and Mattila, Raija and Rollinger, Robert. ''Case Studies in Transmission. The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East, 1''. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, pp. 159-187.
* Widengren, G. 1980. “Macrocosmos-microcosmos speculation in the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-safa and some Hurufi texts” in: ''Archivio di filosofia'', 48, pp. 297–312.


{{DEFAULTSORT:Macrocosm And Microcosm}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macrocosm And Microcosm}}
[[Category:Natural philosophy]]
[[Category:Natural philosophy]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Esoteric cosmology]]
[[Category:Esoteric cosmology]]
[[Category:Hermeticism]]
[[Category:Stoicism]]
[[Category:Paracelsus]]

Revision as of 23:21, 21 January 2021

From Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi historia, Oppenheim/Frankfurt, 1617–1621.

The microcosm-macrocosm analogy refers to the view according to which there is a structural similarity between the human being (the microcosm, i.e., the small order or the small universe) and the cosmos as a whole (the macrocosm, i.e., the great order or the great universe).[1] Given this fundamental analogy, truths about the nature of the cosmos as a whole may be inferred from truths about human nature, and vice versa.[2]

One important corollary of this view is that the cosmos as a whole may be considered to be alive, and thus to have a mind or soul (the world soul). Moreover, this cosmic mind or soul was often thought to be divine, most notably by the Stoics and those who were influenced by them, such as the authors of the Hermetica.[3] Hence, it was sometimes inferred that the human mind or soul too was divine in nature.

Apart from this important psychological and noetic (i.e., related to the mind) application, the analogy was also applied to human physiology.[4] For example, the cosmological functions of the seven classical planets were sometimes taken to be analogous to the physiological functions of human organs, such as the heart, the spleen, the liver, the stomach, etc.[5]

Th view itself is ancient, and may be found in many philosophical systems world-wide, such as for example in ancient Mesopotamia,[6], in ancient Iran,[7] or in ancient Chinese philosophy.[8] However, the terms microcosm and macrocosm refer more specifically to the analogy as it was developed in ancient Greek philosophy and its medieval and early modern descendants.

In contemporary usage, the terms microcosm and macrocosm are also employed to refer to any smaller system that is representative of a larger one, and vice versa.

History

Zeno of Citium (c. 334–262 BCE), founder of the Stoic school of philosophy.

Antiquity

Among ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, notable proponents of the microcosm-macrocosm analogy included Anaximander (c. 610 – c. 546 BCE),[9] Plato (c. 428 or 424 – c. 348 BCE),[10] the Hippocratic authors (late fifth or early fourth century BCE and onwards),[11] and the Stoics (third century BCE and onwards).[12] In later periods, the analogy was especially prominent in the works of those philosophers who were heavily influenced by Platonic and Stoic thought, such as Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE),[13] the authors of the early Greek Hermetica (c. 100 BCE – c. 300 CE),[14] and the Neoplatonists (third century CE and onwards).[15]

Middle Ages

Medieval philosophy was generally dominated by Aristotle, who had posited a fundamental and unsurmountable difference between the region below the moon (the sublunary world, consisting of the four elements) and the region above the moon (the superlunary world, consisting of a fifth element). Nevertheless, the microcosm-macrocosm analogy was adopted by a wide variety of medieval thinkers, most notably by alchemists such as those writing under the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 850–950 CE),[16] by the anonymous Shi'ite philosophers known as the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ ("The Brethren of Purity", c. 900–1000 CE),[17] by the Andalusian mystic Ibn Arabi (1165–1240),[18] and by the German cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464).[19]

Renaissance

Paracelsus (1494–1541)

The revival of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism in the Renaissance, both of which had reserved a prominent place for the microcosm-macrocosm analogy, also led to a marked rise in popularity of the latter. Some of the most notable proponents of the concept in this period include Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), Francesco Patrizi (1529–1597), Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), and Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639).[20] It was also central to the new medical theories propounded by the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1494–1541) and his many followers, most notably Robert Fludd (1574–1637).[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ The terms microcosm and macrocosm derive from ancient Greek μικρός κόσμος (mikrós kósmos) and μακρός κόσμος (makrós kósmos), which may mean 'small universe' and 'great universe', but whose primary meaning is 'small order' and 'great order', respectively (see wiktionary; cf. Allers 1944, pp. 320-321, note 5).
  2. ^ On the macrocosm and the microcosm in general, see, e.g., Conger 1922; Allers 1944; Barkan 1975.
  3. ^ On the Stoics, see Hahm 1977, 63ff.; on the Hermetica, see Festugière, André-Jean 1944-1954. La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste. Vol. I-IV. Paris: Gabalda, vol. I, pp. 92-94, 125-131.
  4. ^ See, e.g., Kranz 1938, pp. 130-133.
  5. ^ See the drawing shown on the right (from Robert Fludd's Utriusque cosmi historia, 1617–1621), which correlates the sun (considered to be a planet in the geocentric model) with the heart.
  6. ^ Svärd and Nokso-Koivisto 2014.
  7. ^ Götze 1923; Duchesne-Guillemin 1956.
  8. ^ Raphals, Lisa 2020. "Chinese Philosophy and Chinese Medicine" in: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition).
  9. ^ See, e.g., Allers 1944.
  10. ^ See especially Olerud 1951.
  11. ^ See Kranz 1938; Schluderer 2018.
  12. ^ See Hahm 1977, 63ff.
  13. ^ See, e.g., Runia, David T. 1986. Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato. Leiden: Brill, pp. 87, 133, 157, 211, 259, 278, 282, 315, 324, 339, 388, 465-466.
  14. ^ See Festugière, André-Jean 1944-1954. La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste. Vol. I-IV. Paris: Gabalda, vol. I, pp. 92-94, 125-131.
  15. ^ See, e.g., Wilberding, James 2006. Plotinus’ Cosmology: A Study of Ennead II.1 (40). Text, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 53-56.
  16. ^ Kraus, Paul 1942-1943. Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale, vol. 2, pp. 47, 50.
  17. ^ See, e.g., Widengren 1980; Nokso-Koivisto 2014; Krinis 2016.
  18. ^ Aminrazavi, Mehdi 2021. "Mysticism in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy" in: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition).
  19. ^ Miller, Clyde Lee 2017. "Cusanus, Nicolaus [Nicolas of Cusa"] in: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition).
  20. ^ See the discussion in Allers 1944, pp. 386-401.
  21. ^ Debus, Allen G. 1965. The English Paracelsians. London: Oldbourne, pp. 19, 41-42, 86, 114-123, et passim.

Further reading

  • Allers, Rudolf 1944. “Microcosmus: From Anaximandros to Paracelsus” in: Traditio, 2, pp. 319-407.
  • Barkan, Leonard 1975. Nature’s Work of Art: The Human Body as Image of the World. London/New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Conger, George Perrigo 1922. Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques 1956. “Persische weisheit in griechischem gewande?” in: Harvard Theological Review, 49(2), pp. 115-122.
  • Götze, Albrecht 1923. “Persische Weisheit in griechischem Gewande: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Mikrokosmos-Idee” in: Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik, 2, pp. 60-98, 167-177.
  • Hahm, David E. 1977. The Origins of Stoic Cosmology. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
  • Olerud, Anders 1951. L’idée de macrocosmos et de microcosmos dans le ‘Timée’ de Platon: Étude de mythologie comparée. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.
  • Kranz, Walther 1938. “Kosmos und Mensch in der Vorstellung frühen Griechentums” in: Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse, 2, 7, pp. 121-161.
  • Krinis, Ehud 2016. “The Philosophical and Theosophical Interpretations of the Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Ikhwān al-ṣafā’ and Jewish Medieval Writings” in: Amir-Moezzi et al. L'Ésotérisme shi'ite, ses racines et ses prolongements. Turnhout: Brepols.
  • Nokso-Koivisto, Inka 2014. Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Rasāʾil Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ and Certain Related Texts. Unpubl. PhD diss., University of Helsinki.
  • Schluderer, Laura Rosella 2018. “Imitating the Cosmos: The Role of Microcosm-Macrocosm Relationships in the Hippocratic Treatise On Regimen” in: Classical Quarterly, 68(1), pp. 31-52.
  • Svärd, Saana and Nokso-Koivisto, Inka 2014. “The Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Mesopotamian and Medieval Arabic History of Science” in: Lindstedt, Ilkka and Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko and Mattila, Raija and Rollinger, Robert. Case Studies in Transmission. The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East, 1. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, pp. 159-187.
  • Widengren, G. 1980. “Macrocosmos-microcosmos speculation in the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-safa and some Hurufi texts” in: Archivio di filosofia, 48, pp. 297–312.