The word chaos appears in a variety of scholarly disciplines. This entry will address its use in the Greek philosophical tradition and a number of religious traditions. Chaos will also be explored in its use in scientific cosmology.

Religious and philosophical traditions

It is characteristic of ancient Greek thought to see the world (cosmos) as coming into existence through the imposition of order on preexisting chaos. The first known usage of the term chaos is in the Theogony of Hesiod (late eight century B.C.E.); Hesiod probably took up the idea from earlier mythological accounts of the beginning of the universe. For Hesiod, chaos refers to the preexisting undifferentiated state of things. It manifests itself in the gap between heaven and Earth that occurs as the world emerges. This chaotic gap is transformed by the...