The question "Are We Alone?" in different cultures
arXiv:0905.4132
Abstract
A survey of the worldwide litterature reveals that the question "Are We Alone in the Universe?" has been formulated only in the western litterature. Here I try to understand why it is so. To investigate this problem it is first necessary to clarify what western culture means.
to appear in The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture: Proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 260, 2009. D. Valls-Gabaud and A. Boksenberg, eds