Metaphysics and the Cosmic Order

In this lecture we shall explore the classical way of understanding nature and the cosmos.

In this lecture we shall explore the classical way of understanding nature and the cosmos. For the ancient philosophers everything was seen as part of the whole, which was full of intelligence, meaning and purpose. From this sense of wholeness arose the different aspects of culture, such as religion, jurisprudence, the arts, and politics. Society was seen as part of the sacred order of the universe, and all aspects of human life revealed the calling of the human race as contemplator of the truth of things. Man was understood to be an integral part of the cosmos.

Lecturer biography

Joseph Milne is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Kent in Religious Studies. His interests range from Platonism to Medieval mysticism and theology, and in particular the transformations of metaphysical thought on the nature of the real that have occurred in different periods of Western civilisation. He is also interested in the Medieval tradition of scriptural exegesis from Origen to Hugh of St Victor and Meister Eckhart. His current research is into the ancient understanding of Natural Law and man’s place in Nature. The author of The Ground of Being: Foundations of Christian Mysticism, Metaphysics and the Cosmic Order, and The Mystical Cosmos, he is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy and a Trustee of The Eckhart Society.

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