• mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Then, just like now, the generally accepted view of anything isn’t based on the absolute state of human knowledge, but on the state of mass education.

    • zloubida@sh.itjust.works
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      13 days ago

      It’s true, and we don’t have a lot of sources to infer what the commoner knew. But when a scientific fact is a consensus among scholars, even if literacy is low, it finishes in the mind of the whole population. In the 13th century, the roundness of Earth was a consensus for more than 1000 years… it’s safe to assume that it was known by almost everyone. Moreover priests, even low profile priests, received at least a basic education, and they would know that the Earth was round, and they would spread that knowledge.