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The Earth is Flat!

An Exposé of the Globularist Hoax

Original author Leo Ferrari
Edited by Kay Burns & David Eso
Categories: Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Atlantic Canadian Studies
Series: Social and Economic Studies
Series Number: 85
Paperback : 9781894725590, 296 pages, November 2019

Table of contents

Forewarning by Iris Taylor 7

Three Pieces of Limestone by Kay Burns 11

Across the Peneplain and over the Precipice by David Eso 21

Note on the Text 58

The Earth Is Flat! An Exposé of the Globularist Hoax

Author’s Acknowledgements 61

Introduction 67

1. Round or Flat? 73

2. Does Half the World Live Upside Down? 87

3. The More Elementary “Proofs” of the Globularists 105

4. The Scientific “Proofs” of the Globularists 123

5. The Growth of Globularism 153

6. Gyroglobularism, or the Curse of Copernicus 175

7. Planoterrestrialism or Globularism? 203

8. The Philosophy of the Flat Earth Society 219

9. Adventures with the Flat Earth Society 233

Epilogue 253

Flat Earthers’ Forum: Tractates by the Executive of the Society and Sundry Papers by the Members 261

Editors’ Acknowledgements 295

About the Editors 296

A long-forgotten philosophical satire about the nature of knowledge and truth, which, in an age of “fake news,” possesses renewed relevance.

Description

Kay Burns and David Eso’s edition of Leo Ferrari’s The Earth Is Flat! introduces us to a long-forgotten satirical work, which, in an age of fake news, possesses renewed relevance. Ferrari, a philosopher by training, draws on his extensive knowledge of classical thought to present a history of ideas that is sometimes accurate, but more frequently speculative. He traces the conflict between “Globularist” and “Planoterrestrial” beliefs from antiquity to his contemporary moment of the early 1970s. He also charts the tongue-in-cheek activities of the Flat Earth Society of Canada, which he co-founded in 1970 with celebrated authors Alden Nowlan and Raymond Fraser. Other notable members included literary luminaries Al Pittman, Farley Mowat, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and Patrick Lane. The author blurs the line between seriousness and humour in the interests of exploring philosophical concepts such as the nature of belief and the implications of technological modernity.