The Earth's Shape

The subject of the earth's shape is associated with an amount of controversy that might surprise those who have never thought of the issue since school.  As with many things, true or false, the spherical shape of the earth is merely assumed to be true by societies that scarcely concern themselves with epistemological inquiries.  There is genuine evidence that the planet is a sphere, of course, but the issue is considered so fundamental to many who see the current consensus challenged that it is dramatically exaggerated in importance.

Does familiarity with the evidence for a spherical shape transform the experienced daily life of humans?  Of course not!  Whether our planet is a disc or a sphere is of no relevance to the nature of reason, the uncaused cause, morality, or human consciousness, all of which are more significant than the shape of cosmological bodies ever could be.  The shape of the earth is simply of little to no consequence for the future of humankind or for how we live in the present.

Of course, the earth's shape is a matter of truth, as all material objects must by logical necessity have some sort of shape.  While it is ultimately impossible to prove which shape the planet has beyond our perceptions for the same reason it is impossible to even prove that one's body ultimately has four limbs (sensory perceptions and the actual appearance and shape of material objects do not necessarily align), it is possible to find evidence for the earth having one shape or another.

It is nonetheless true that a flat or spherical earth is of no grand philosophical consequence, as is the case with many scientific matters that plenty of modern people obsess over with a disproportionate amount of zeal and attention.  Affirming the evidence for a spherical planet is one thing; it is another thing to pretend like a particular model of the earth's shape is an absolute certainty like the veracity of a sound logical deduction or the immediate perceptions of one's consciousness.

Whether the earth is a flat disc or a sphere is simply a minor matter at best even after one has considered the epistemological limitations which prevent a person on the planet's surface from seeing the whole of the earth from a distance.  Yes, either one of these ideas is false or both of them are.  Yes, there is evidence that the earth is indeed spherical.  All the same, it takes an incredible amount of philosophical incompetence to think that this is truly an issue that is of deep, pressing importance.