Chaos

	Thinking hardly; or hardly thinking?; Philosophy
	Major trains of thought
	Logic; Morality; Reality;
	The good, the bad,; and the brain fart
	Mind; Apatheism; China brain; Panpsychism; The Sacred and the Profane; Philosophical zombie; Civility; Veganism;
	Come to think of it
	Religion; Science; Philosophy of science; Ethics; Psychology; v - t - e

“”The task of art today is to bring chaos into order.

Original in German:
Aufgabe von Kunst ist es heute, Chaos in die Ordnung zu bringen.

—Theodor W. Adorno in Minima Moralia^[1]

Chaos is a term that refers to the state in which there is no order or predictability. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word χάος.

Chaos in religion[edit]

Greek myth[edit]

In Greek creation myths, the state before the creation of the universe is known as chaos. "Chaos" in this sense actually means something closer to "void", "emptiness", or "abyss", rather than its modern meanings of "disorder", "confusion", or "wild and absurd events".^[2] In Greek myths, Chaos is — in addition to being effectively existence before existence^{[note 1]} — also a Primordial Entity or "Protogenoi", which were the first beings to come into existence, before even the titans. (Though technically, Chaos was both the void and the primordial entity. Creation myths can be weird like that.)^[3] Most people would be more familiar with the Protogenoi Nyx, Gaia, and Chronos (which were directly born from Chaos).

Creation and Chaos in mythology[edit]

Fighting against chaos appears as a common motif, and is referred to as chaoskampf, which is German for "struggle against chaos". Chaoskampf appears in the form of hero gods fighting against powers of chaos.

Chaos in pop culture[edit]

Chaos is regarded as a metaphysical force in fantasy settings such as Dungeons & Dragons, in which it is often defined in terms of its opposition to law/order^[2]^[4] (which in practice forms a situation not unlike the aforementioned chaoskampf). This dichotomy has a tendency to be distinct from good and evil, though it can also overlap with them, particularly for the sake of creating more nuanced moral alignments.

Notes[edit]

↑ In terms of modern scientific understanding of the universe, this would be the universe before the Big Bang. One could indeed use "chaos" in the "void" sense to describe everything outside of the speck of matter that would become the universe once the Big Bang was sparked.

References[edit]

For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Chaos.

↑ http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1951/mm/ch03.htm
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 chaos on Wiktionary ("Chaos" with a capital C apparently refers to a genus of amoebae.)
↑ See the Wikipedia article on Chaos (cosmogony) § Greco-Roman tradition.
↑ See "Order Versus Chaos" on TV Tropes for more details.

This philosophy-related article is a stub.
You can help RationalWiki by expanding it.

[3] In terms of modern scientific understanding of the universe, this would be the universe before the Big Bang. One could indeed use "chaos" in the "void" sense to describe everything outside of the speck of matter that would become the universe once the Big Bang was sparked.

[1] ttp://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1951/mm/ch03.htm

[wiktionary-2] 2.0 ^2.1 chaos on Wiktionary ("Chaos" with a capital C apparently refers to a genus of amoebae.)

[4] See the Wikipedia article on Chaos (cosmogony) § Greco-Roman tradition.

[5] See "Order Versus Chaos" on TV Tropes for more details.

[1]

[2]

[note 1]

[3]

[4]