Rationale SEAC 2013
Since the dawn of humanity Astronomy is the cardinal socio-anthropological activity that led to the development of Culture, Mathematics, Philosophy and Civilization.
Conference SEAC 2013 has the theme “Astronomy, mother of Civilization and Guide to the Future”. Emphasis will be to reveal the crucial role of astronomy in societies, countries, continents, at all eras.
Human, ANTHROPOS [ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ] in Greek according to a popular etymology means the one that looks up, sees the sky, and admires the harmony of the celestial sphere with the stars and the planets and develops the will to try to understand and explain the Cosmos [ΚΟΣΜΟΣ means ornament in Greek]. In their effort to understand the Cosmos humans develop logic, causality, and civilization. Philosophy is born.
ASTRONOMY: MOTHER OF CIVILIZATION AND GUIDE TO THE FUTURE
Astronomy, as a set of practices, of methods and observations and theoretical reasoning, has always been a crucial activity of every human society and the human mind, already from the dawn of the civilization. Astronomy has served as a vehicle for the survival of the very early and fragile societies of the Paleolithic era, and was at the same time an answer to the agonizing quest of the human beings, while seeking for an answer about their identity and position within Nature and Cosmos.
Astronomy, as a practice, was always interconnected with other realms of social discourse, such as mythology, religion, philosophy, and with the emerging Cosmo-systems, and introduced a strong connection between the celestial phenomena and human activities. Observing and studying these harmonious of the celestial bodies, civilizations learned to stay in tune with the cycle of the seasons and the various variations of the behavior of their landscapes, thus providing means for their long – standing survival on their fight against the natural forces and the taming of Nature itself that eventually led to the development of science and philosophy.
Astronomy, as an exact science, is born within the movement of the Ionian Renaissance, from the great Pre-socratic spirits, and is always interconnected with the birth of philosophy, as well, from the very same masters of the human thought. Its first acme, after its birth and as an advanced scientific discipline, appears in the Hellenistic Era. As an autopoetic structure, in its complete form, grounded and established by giants, such as Archimedes, Hipparchus, Posidonius, Claudius Ptolemy appears and flourishes in all the forthcoming great civilizations and empires, unchanged in its aims and internal structure, that is as a specific way of observing nature, unraveling the secrets of Cosmos, and placing humans within it.
The evolution of astronomy leads to the great scientific revolution and the modern world, through Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler and Newton, to mention only a few of the giants that set the foundations of the modern world.
In our days, Astronomy strongly refers to the global heritage of all the human civilizations, as a bond and a point of reference between them, while it opens new roads for our globalized society, towards the space exploration, and the gigantic leap of mankind towards leaving its place of birth, our planet Earth, and expanding to new frontiers. Astronomy, as a science, and as the fountain of various technological achievements inspired by the needs of space exploration, opens novel roads towards our common fate, while it always remind us the common bond which exists between cultures and civilizations.