Physical Form
In the ancient past there were varying levels of belief in a flat Earth, with the Mesopotamian culture portraying the world as a flat disk afloat in an ocean. The spherical form of the Earth was suggested by early Greek philosophers; a belief espoused by Pythagoras. By the Middle Ages—as evidenced by thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas—European belief in a spherical Earth was widespread. Prior to circumnavigation of the planet and the introduction of space flight, belief in a spherical Earth was based on observations of the secondary effects of the Earth's shape and parallels drawn with the shape of other planets.
Read more about this topic: Earth In Culture
Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or form:
“Women are to be lifted up to a physical equality with man by placing upon their shoulders equal burdens of labor, equal responsibilities of state-craft; they are to be brought down from their altruistic heights by being released from all obligations of purity, loyalty, self-sacrifice, and made free of the world of passion and self-indulgence, after the model set them by men of low and materialistic ideals.”
—Caroline Fairfield Corbin (b. c. 1835–?)
“Conscience is the moralized form of self-absorption.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)