"Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive." Milton Friedman

Posted by awebb 11 years, 11 months ago to Philosophy

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Posted by Hiraghm 11 years, 11 months ago

No, he was out for fame and fortune, and the reason nobody but the foolish barbarian king and queen of Spain would back him, was because he was wrong... by about 5,000 miles. And everybody knew it.

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  Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 11 months ago
  
  Ah, but they knew it for the wrong reason. Columbus was right in that if he continued to sail westward, he would eventually circle the globe. In that he was correct, he merely didn't count on there being an entire continent in the way.
  
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    Posted by Hiraghm 11 years, 11 months ago
    
    They knew it for the right reason; centuries before, Eristophanes calculated the circumference of the Earth.
    
    He was wrong in the size of the Earth, which is why he couldn't account for a continent in the way. By his faulty calculations, there was no where for the continent to *be*.
    
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