English

The question "Are We Alone?" in different cultures

History and Philosophy of Physics 2009-12-27 v2 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

A survey of the worldwide litterature reveals that the question "Are We Alone in the Universe?" has been formulated only in the western litterature. Here I try to understand why it is so. To investigate this problem it is first necessary to clarify what western culture means.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0905.4132,
  title  = {The question "Are We Alone?" in different cultures},
  author = {Jean Schneider},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.4132},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

to appear in The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture: Proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 260, 2009. D. Valls-Gabaud and A. Boksenberg, eds

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:05:57.120Z