Re: The Origins of Continents

["Frederick Emrich, Editor, info-commons.org" <editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There are very solid geological theories on which our understanding of the
continents is based. Here is one site with some basic information:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents
.shtml


Frederick Emrich, Editor
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----- Original Message -----
From: Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The Origins of Continents


> >am I right to say that the division between Europe and Asia (which
> >aren't separate continents, strictly speaking) simply reflects the
> >"us" vs. "them" attitudes of the ancient Greeks?
> >Jim Devine
>
> These supposed " "us" vs. "them" attitudes "  are certainly not
> to be found in Homer, Herodotos, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle,
> or Demosthenes.  For the ancient Greeks it was always much
> more "us vs. us".  Nor did they consider "Europe," "Asia," and
> "Libya" to be "continents" in the sense indicated by Plato, but
> rather as areas within a much larger landmass whose total
> dimensions were only vaguely known.
>
> Shane Mage
>
>
>
> >       -----Original Message-----
> >       From: Shane Mage [mailto:shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> >       Sent: Tue 5/25/2004 9:23 PM
> >       To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >       Cc:
> >       Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The Origins of Continents
> >
> >
> >
> >       Jayson Funke asks:
> >
> >       "Can anyone tell me of [the] origin of the term continents?"
> >
> >       The term is of Greek origin, *epeiros*.  It seems to have been
first
> >       used in the sense of "continent" by Herodotos.  Plato, at Timaios
25A,
> >       speaks of the American  continent:  "...all that we have
> >       here, lying within the Pillars of Herakles, is evidently a bay
with
> >       a narrow entrance [in Phaedo he compares the Mediterranean  to a
frog
> >       pond] but that yonder [the Atlantic] is a real ocean, and the land
> >       surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and
truest
> >       sense, a continent."
> >
> >       Shane Mage
> >
> >       "When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that
all
> >       things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even
> >       downright silly.
> >
> >       When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that
all
> >       things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true."  (N.
> >       Weiner)
> >