Chaos ancient and modern

Abstract

The paper considers three evolutionary stages of the concept of “chaos” in the world culture history: the Antiquity, Romanticism and Modern culture of the late XX and early XXI centuries. Special attention is paid to the philosophy of chaos by F. Tyutchev who eminently forestalled the modern understanding of chaos in synergetics. At the end of the XX century chaos for the first time was transformed into a scientific notion rather than a mythical and poetical one. Synergetics establishes ontological symmetry between cosmos and chaos. Chaos loses its traditional negative energetics and becomes a full-fledged element of the Universe dynamics. It is noted that symbiosis of order and chaos in modern culture is a dangerous tendency.