The origins of today's cosmology began with the observation in the early 1500s by Nicolaus Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
The next step was the discovery in the late 1600s by Isaac Newton that objects in space behaved according to the same laws of physics as objects on Earth..
Cosmology has import for philosophy in one important sense
There is an argument, still discussed to this day, that claims that particular facts about cosmology support the existence of God
In its most modern incarnation, it claims that Big Bang cosmology is evidence that the universe had a beginning and is contingent
The study of the nature of the universe is closely related to philosophy
Cosmologists ask fundamental questions about the nature of the Universe, and they try to answer these questions through observation and rational explanation
There are several important aspects of cosmology in philosophy
Its main goal is to provide an alternative explanation of the nature of the universe and its origin
Its goal is to force people to rethink their beliefs and fundamental questions about modalities
