Philosophical as well as scientific disputes about the role gravitation plays in the structure of the universe took place long before the high-tech cosmology emerged. One of the main topics of these disputes was the problem of the so-called gravitational paradox, which appears when one applies the Newtonian laws of gravity to the whole material content of the universe. According to these laws, gravitation should cause a global collapse what is obviously inconsistent with observations. Various formulations of this paradox are analyzed and their historical context is presented.