Another stunning interview answer
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@dhromed said:
@Random832 said:
Even if this is true, that ignores entirely that there was never, in fact, a general consensus that the earth was flat. The first people to think about it determined that it was round, and that never changed.
Not sure what you mean. There was a huge general consensus about the earth's flatness. Everybody used to believe the earth was flat. Common sense. The few people who looked into the matter found the rather counter-intuitive result of a round earth.
They were ridiculed and excluded from parties. Nobody would pick them in gym class.
Common sense is when you take the obvious parts of what your senses tell you, and don't look any further. Common sense is the antithesis of proper investigation and rational, critical thinking.
It’s commonly believed now that it was once commonly believed that the earth was flat. But, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology—and, if you don’t trust wikipedia itself, go look at the sources it cites.
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@Random832 said:
It’s commonly believed now that it was once commonly believed that the earth was flat. But, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology—and, if you don’t trust wikipedia itself, go look at the sources it cites.
However,
this article is concerned with Medieval notions in Europe (our
understanding of them). Before that belief that the Earth is flat
doesn't seem to be that rare:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth[/url]Not sure what
is commonly understood under "common sense" (beliefs common to many
people?, common and practical understanding of things?), but in my
language there's a saying "healthy peasant's mind" and a healty peasant
might just consider the question irrelevant for everyday farming and
anyone who neglects the fields to ponder the Shape of the World
useless.
