Buying through this banner helps support the forum!
Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst 12345
Results 61 to 72 of 72

Thread: The Most Important People in History

  1. #61
    www.markbastable.co.uk
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    London
    Posts
    3,447
    Quote Originally Posted by IceM View Post
    The thread asks for the most important people in history, not giving a specific starting point as to when people will be considered. My two American nominations were, to me, perhaps the most important in American history.
    In that case I nominate the Headmaster of my local Primary School, who discovered a gas leak last Thursday at 7:30 am, and had it mended before the kids arrived.

    The thread asks for the most important people in history, not giving a specific starting point as to when people will be considered - and I've chosen the 1st May 2011 as my starting point, and I'm limiting myself to the history of Croydon and nearby towns.

  2. #62
    A Student
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    516
    Quote Originally Posted by MarkBastable View Post
    In that case I nominate the Headmaster of my local Primary School, who discovered a gas leak last Thursday at 7:30 am, and had it mended before the kids arrived.

    The thread asks for the most important people in history, not giving a specific starting point as to when people will be considered - and I've chosen the 1st May 2011 as my starting point, and I'm limiting myself to the history of Croydon and nearby towns.
    Legititimate nomination, I hear.

  3. #63
    Card-carrying Medievalist Lokasenna's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    In a lurid pink building...
    Posts
    2,769
    Blog Entries
    5
    Although I gave no starting point, I did suggest that our criteria should be that these people have had an huge impact on the shaping of world history. Lovely though I'm sure Croyden is, it hasn't exactly shaped the modern world!

    Why not say Adam and Eve? If the Bible is true word for word, didn't we spawn from them?
    Most people, including most Christians, would not suggest the Bible is true word for word. However, what about Mitochondrial Eve? As the progenitor of the human race, she's got to be of major importance.
    "I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche

  4. #64
    Registered User
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by mortalterror View Post
    That's a really nice list, with the exception of that bit about Edward de Vere. You know, Edward de Vere actually published some of his own poems, and they don't look anything like Shakespeare's. I remember thinking that they seemed like the product of a very intelligent but untalented man.
    There are only twenty poems (approximately) either written under Oxford's name or attributed to him. A precise one-on-one comparison to Shakespeare is very difficult. There are so few of Oxford's poems and most of them are from his early years, while the poems published under the name of Shakespeare is from his later years when he was over 40. One can hardly compare the teenage works of great artists whit their mature output.

    Yet even so, there are similarities in themes, language, and styles, though of course they in no way match the beauty of Shakespeare's later work.

  5. #65
    Dance Magic Dance OrphanPip's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kuala Lumpur but from Canada
    Posts
    4,163
    Blog Entries
    25
    Mitochondrial Eve isn't the progenitor of the human race though, she's the last common matrilineal ancestor. She had several progenitors who are each in turn equally progenitors of every living human being.
    "If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
    - Margaret Atwood

  6. #66
    Card-carrying Medievalist Lokasenna's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    In a lurid pink building...
    Posts
    2,769
    Blog Entries
    5
    Quote Originally Posted by OrphanPip View Post
    Mitochondrial Eve isn't the progenitor of the human race though, she's the last common matrilineal ancestor. She had several progenitors who are each in turn equally progenitors of every living human being.
    Fair enough - I'll admit to not being much of a biologist! But even so, doesn't that make her important? Again, I've no idea of the correct technical vocabulary, but doesn't this make her the prototype of our species?
    "I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche

  7. #67
    Dance Magic Dance OrphanPip's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kuala Lumpur but from Canada
    Posts
    4,163
    Blog Entries
    25
    Quote Originally Posted by Lokasenna View Post
    Fair enough - I'll admit to not being much of a biologist! But even so, doesn't that make her important? Again, I've no idea of the correct technical vocabulary, but doesn't this make her the prototype of our species?
    No, this is a common misunderstanding though. The mitochondria is unique in that it is passed down matrilineally, thus it is not effected by any gene swapping or sexual reproduction. With most genes sexual reproduction obscures the last common ancestor, who likely lived at very different times from mitochondrial Eve. Just as Y-chromosome Adam lived over 50, 000 years after mito-Eve. Mitochondrial Eve is a woman who everyone is related to through their mother, but there are numerous historical people who we are all related to. The most recent just from lineage (without looking at specific genes) lived some 10-15 thousand years ago. For people of Western European decent, we all share a MRCA of some 500 years ago. That's where the kind of anecdotes about Ghenghis Kahn and his numerous offspring come from. That is essentially true of most people who lived a few hundred years ago.

    We probably share a lineage with other women who lived alongside Mito Eve, but not through an unbroken matrilineal line. She is also not the first woman, or the source of most of our genes, we would have an entirely different MRCA for most genes if we had the capability to track them (we don't because lineage of genes passed on through sexual reproduction become obscured after a number of generations).
    Last edited by OrphanPip; 05-24-2011 at 12:18 AM.
    "If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
    - Margaret Atwood

  8. #68
    Ivor Randle, writer themiddleprince's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    UK (northern England)
    Posts
    49
    There is no most important person. The mother of Genghis Khan is more important than the man himself because if he hadn't done what he did the other sperm/egg combination she produced instead could have done; or a completely different Mongol chieftan. GK would have achieved nothing that we remember him for if his people had ignored him. Communities and their values are the important factors; Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha are all just opinionated god-botherers like so many others around them until communities grow around their teachings. These forums are full of plays and poems that will be glanced at by two people late at night; Shakespeare (or whoever) wrote among a community of players and theatregoers. Alexander, in the early posts on this thread, is cited because he shaped the Hellenic culture: it's the Hellenic culture's acceptance of his influence - and the influence of every man and woman who made a baby, a pot or a poem - that shaped history.
    Ivor Randle
    author of The Middle Prince
    Available now on Amazon Kindle for all e-readers

  9. #69
    www.markbastable.co.uk
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    London
    Posts
    3,447
    Quote Originally Posted by themiddleprince View Post
    There is no most important person.
    I don't think anyone's suggesting there is. It's a discussion for intellectual fun, rather than a proposition by which we all might live our lives.

  10. #70
    Ivor Randle, writer themiddleprince's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    UK (northern England)
    Posts
    49
    Quote Originally Posted by MarkBastable View Post
    It's a discussion for intellectual fun, rather than a proposition by which we all might live our lives.
    It wasn't my intention to kill the thread, just chuck in a different perspective for people to refute with proof of why their hero is the keystone of humanity. A great many people do of course choose to live their lives by the propositions of their heroes.

    They then band with others of the same ilk and form a community...
    Ivor Randle
    author of The Middle Prince
    Available now on Amazon Kindle for all e-readers

  11. #71
    www.markbastable.co.uk
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    London
    Posts
    3,447
    Well, yeah - but the "Genghis Khan's mum" argument is either refutable in every case, and therefore no use as an argument at all, or it applies in every case, and therefore does kill the thread stone-dead.

  12. #72
    A Student
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    516
    Quote Originally Posted by IceM View Post
    The thread asks for the most important people in history, not giving a specific starting point as to when people will be considered. My two American nominations were, to me, perhaps the most important in American history.

    I'm clearly aware America as a nation hasn't existed as long as the Roman Empire, but my nominations were for American "History."

    Why not say Adam and Eve? If the Bible is true word for word, didn't we spawn from them?
    I wish to recant of the way this comment can come across, as if to discredit the Bible.

    Also, as a now-evangelical Christian, my creation account holds that this is true.

    My new answer to this overall question is Christ. May the one and only Son of God be praised.

    May you be safe during this time, everyone.
    Last edited by IceM; 04-04-2020 at 02:20 PM.

Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst 12345

Similar Threads

  1. Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment
    By sushil_yadav in forum Philosophical Literature
    Replies: 213
    Last Post: 12-09-2016, 08:33 PM
  2. Are you a representative?
    By motherhubbard in forum General Chat
    Replies: 58
    Last Post: 06-26-2010, 06:55 AM
  3. Review: Science Writing & Philosophy
    By Dodo25 in forum Philosophical Literature
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 05-20-2010, 05:27 PM
  4. Is History important?
    By Nightshade in forum Serious Discussions
    Replies: 44
    Last Post: 08-18-2009, 12:07 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •