Cosmology of the Moderns

Modern societies often believe they have left cosmology behind. Myth, religion, and sacred explanations of the universe are thought to belong to the past, replaced by science, rational institutions, and technological knowledge. Yet the modern world continues to construct explanations of reality on a vast scale. Scientific institutions investigate the origin and structure of the universe. Archives preserve immense bodies of knowledge.
Classification systems organize the diversity of natural and social life. Media institutions interpret events and circulate narratives that shape collective understanding. Economic systems model the future through growth forecasts and systemic analysis. Religious traditions continue to situate human life within moral and metaphysical frameworks. Taken together, these institutions produce something remarkably similar to earlier cosmologies: a structured interpretation of reality and humanity's place within it.
In Cosmology of the Moderns, Richard Vandaal argues that modern societies have not escaped cosmology. Instead, cosmology has migrated into the institutions that organize knowledge, communication, religion, and capital. The result is not a single worldview but a plural cosmological environment in which different institutional systems generate overlapping ontologies. Drawing on sociology, philosophy, media theory, and political economy, this book explores how modern societies construct their cosmos through the interaction of scientific knowledge, institutional authority, economic systems, and cultural interpretation.
Cosmology did not disappear with modernity. It became institutional.