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TIL there is no agreement on how many continents there are.
(en.wikipedia.org)
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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Honestly, the biggest two problems I've encountered are:
You seem to be assuming that continents are defined based on plate tectonics? Which they definitely aren't since they predate our understanding of plate tectonics by centuries.
Yes it's a flawed system. In particular it's Europe-centric and kind of breaks down with Asia's borders with Europe and Oceania being relatively arbitrary. But trying to retroactively make it fit some kind of "objective" definition is IMO the wrong approach. We don't need the 5-ish continents to be "fixed" because their definition is unserious and of little consequence. As long as we're cognizant we can just move on with our lives and use more precise descriptors (e.g. "The Middle East") when needed.
No, you misunderstand: I am claiming that the only valid way to define continents is using the best available scientific understanding at the time. The idea of continents is bullshit because it does not conform with consistently-defined parameters.
When plate tectonics was developed, the geological community quickly accepted, for instance, that Europe was no longer its own continent, but also that New Zealand was. I am suggesting that anyone claiming there are six or seven continents is precisely like someone claiming there are nine planets. It's not only not based off of the best available scientific classifications, it's also so reductivist as to be literally useless. It doesn't matter that Pluto isn't a big-boy-planet, because that prescriptivist definition doesnt actually help for classification. As you point out, it is far better to use more specific terms in all cases.