Ancient Views on Earth's Geography
Overview
Early in the sixth century B.C., Greek philosophy began to develop, and philosophers of this period undertook a serious inquiry into the nature and organization of the world. They explored questions involving the natural sciences, including questions about the substances that constitute Earth and the sky above it. They also began to ponder geographical questions about the shape of Earth and the nature of its origins. Initially, the endeavors of these philosophers were steeped in the pervasive myths of their day. As philosophers began to pose new questions and come up with new answers, however, they began the gradual move away from using mythology to explain natural phenomena. No longer using the arbitrary acts of the gods to explain natural phenomena, philosophers began to believe that Earth was actually an orderly and predictable world that was governed by universal principles. They argued that the causes of lightning, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes were the same throughout the world and should not be attributed to the acts of various gods. Just what these principles were that governed such natural phenomena proved to be harder to figure out. Firm in their belief, however, Greek philosophers began to apply the term kosmos (cosmos) to the orderly world.
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