Comparison of Cosmological Concepts in the Pre-Socratic era

Pre-Socratic cosmologies represent the basis of science in Ancient Greece, e.i. the basis of European science in general. Among all the pre-Socratic philosophers who dealt with cosmologies, four names stand out – Anaximander, Xenophanes, Parmenides and Philolaus. The cosmological conceptions of these four thinkers are fundamentally different from other ideas and theories of the 6th/5th century BC outlined by other philosophers of the given epochs. My presentation will focus mainly on these differences and the uniqueness of the cosmologies of the mentioned four philosophers, especially on the spherical shape of the universe and the Earth and the related discoveries of the three-dimensionality of heavenly bodies and their circulation under the Earth.