The Formation of Belief  

Oleh:

Ohlsson, Stellan

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: Deep Learning How the Mind Overrides Experience, page 291-328.
Topik: Conversion; Resistance; Science As Example; The Child as Scientist; Falsification Falsified
Fulltext: The Formation of Belief.pdf (404.37KB)

Isi artikel

To someone standing on the African savannah, walking across a field in the Fertile Crescent or riding across the North American prairie, the evidence of the senses is unequivocal: The Earth is flat. There are local perturbations – valleys and mountains – but they cancel each other over long distances, so the Earth extends in all directions in the horizontal plane. Although it is diffi cult to prove anything about the beliefs of pre-historic peoples, it would be surprising if they conceived of the Earth in any other way. But the fl at Earth generates puzzles: How far does it extend? Does it have an edge? If so, what is beyond the edge? If the ocean extends all the way to the edge, what happens with the water? If it pours over the edge, must not the ocean empty out eventually? Where does the water go? To anyone with the disposition and the opportunity to consider such questions, the lack of intelligible answers must have generated doubt. People living by the sea could make two observations that point to a different conception: Looking out from a high observation point, an observer sees the horizon curve ever so slightly. When a ship approaches, the mast appears over the horizon before the hull.

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