Strange to say, it's because of Immanuel Kant that I'm fixated on the sphericity of the globe. Outside of geographers, who know that Kant was one of the inaugurators of their field, nobody seems to know that the great philosopher cared deeply about contingencies like oceans and continents, winds and currents. Even geographers seem unaware that he thought geographical knowledge the surest foundation for sound philosophy and ethics.In fact, Kant thought that unless you were aware of where you stood, historically and geographically, your thinking on human questions was likely to devolve into dreaming. And unless you were aware that knowledge, like the globe, forms a bounded whole of interrelated phenomena, your philosophy (and religion) would soon slip into the unmoored mysticism the 18th century called enthusiasm (Schwärmerei). Place and history may not be deeper questions than space and time (or maybe they are). But you're sure to go wrong thinking about space and time without a good sense of place.
