Foreword / by Dmitri Panchenko

Introduction

Archaic astronomy and the world-picture of a flat earth. The archaic world picture ; Archaic astronomical instruments ; How Thales was able to predict the solar eclipse of 28 May 585 B.C. ; The shape of the earth according to Thales ; The riddle of the celestial axis ; The first map of the earth

Anaximander and the discovery of space. Anaximander : a survey of his ideas ; The discovery of space : Anaximander's cosmology ; Anaximander's numbers : the dimensions of the universe ; The visualization of Anaximander's world picture ; Bellows or lightning? : A curious terminology explained ; Critique of an alleged cosmic architecture

The completion of the new world-picture and the debate on the shape of the earth. A survey from Anaximander to Aristarchus ; With fear for his own life : Anaxagoras as a cosmologist ; The sun at the horizon, Anaxagoras' proof of the flatness of the earth ; The sun is as big as the Peloponnesus ; The dodecahedron, or the shape of the earth according to Plato ; Fear of falling : Aristotle on the shape of the earth ; Heraclides Ponticus and the infinite universe.