Does spherical earth count? I couldn’t find any sources saying the idea was seen as ridiculous, especially around the time that they actually discovered it was round via physical measurements.
There is indeed the Myth of the flat Earth that is a misconception about the beliefs of scholars in the Middle Ages and some scholars certainly understood the concept of a spherical Earth since at least Eratosthenes. I’m referring to earlier history like ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and pre-Socratic Greek cosmologies. Admittedly, it’s not a great example since most of the debates about it are lost to history, and such debates wouldn’t involve the same kind of reasoning and evidential standards we use today.
It helps to look up what the term means: “The caloric theory is an obsolete scientific theory that heat consists of a self-repellent fluid called caloric that flows from hotter bodies to colder bodies. Caloric was also thought of as a weightless gas that could pass in and out of pores in solids and liquids.”
Historical examples of things that once sounded ridiculous but turned out to be true:
Spherical Earth (vs Flat Earth)
Heliocentrism (vs Geocentrism)
Germ theory (vs e.g. Miasmatic theory)
Evolution via natural selection
Quantum mechanics
Relativity
Plate tectonics
Black holes
It’s harder to know what qualifies as false examples since they do (now) have good counterarguments, but maybe something like these:
Phlogiston theory
Vitalism
Luminiferous aether
Lamarckian evolution
Cold fusion
Steady State cosmology (vs Big Bang)
Caloric theory
Spontaneous generation
Examples of ideas with less certain status:
String theory / quantum gravity / unified physics
Multiverse hypothesis / simulation hypothesis
Existence and nature of extraterrestrial life
Nature of dark matter & dark energy
Epigenetic roles in disease and inheritance
Origins of life / abiogenesis / panspermia
Nature of consciousness and reality
Does spherical earth count? I couldn’t find any sources saying the idea was seen as ridiculous, especially around the time that they actually discovered it was round via physical measurements.
There is indeed the Myth of the flat Earth that is a misconception about the beliefs of scholars in the Middle Ages and some scholars certainly understood the concept of a spherical Earth since at least Eratosthenes. I’m referring to earlier history like ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and pre-Socratic Greek cosmologies. Admittedly, it’s not a great example since most of the debates about it are lost to history, and such debates wouldn’t involve the same kind of reasoning and evidential standards we use today.
What’s wrong with caloric theory?
It helps to look up what the term means: “The caloric theory is an obsolete scientific theory that heat consists of a self-repellent fluid called caloric that flows from hotter bodies to colder bodies. Caloric was also thought of as a weightless gas that could pass in and out of pores in solids and liquids.”
Thanks, appreciate the polite explanation!