Mohammed
I’d link to a picture, but can’t find one.
Gyrate
June 16, 2010, 8:40am
605
Are you saying that the mountain is coming to Mohammed?
JohnT
June 17, 2010, 2:28am
607
Last day for this round!!!
JohnT
June 17, 2010, 3:42pm
609
And the loser is:
Mohammed, 8 votes.
~And he saw his reflection on the snow covered hills… 'til the landslide brought him down~
(With apologies to Fleetwood Mac)
Remaining names:
Inventors, Johann Gutenberg, Inventor of Printing Press
Gyrate
June 17, 2010, 4:20pm
612
Augustus [del]Gloop[/del] Caesar
Ceasar? I hardly know 'er!
But yeah, Gus gets my vote.
Am I missing something about Aristotle?
Mohammed - Founded a religion that has over a billion adherents.
Augustus Caesar - Founded an Empire that lasted for fifteen centuries and was the basis of western civilization.
Aristotle - Nitpicked over the trivial metaphysical nonsense like how many different types of souls there are. Speculated incorrectly about science.
Little_Nemo:
Am I missing something about Aristotle?
Mohammed - Founded a religion that has over a billion adherents.
Augustus Caesar - Founded an Empire that lasted for fifteen centuries and was the basis of western civilization.
Aristotle - Nitpicked over the trivial metaphysical nonsense like how many different types of souls there are. Speculated incorrectly about science.
I don’t think you’re too wrong. With the exception of Newton, the ones left are definitely not my Final Four. But was Augustus that essential? Didn’t his stepfather do more conquering? As for Aristotle, his writings were hugely infuential, and some of his science was correct!
JohnT
June 17, 2010, 9:27pm
618
Little_Nemo:
Am I missing something about Aristotle?
Mohammed - Founded a religion that has over a billion adherents.
Augustus Caesar - Founded an Empire that lasted for fifteen centuries and was the basis of western civilization.
Aristotle - Nitpicked over the trivial metaphysical nonsense like how many different types of souls there are. Speculated incorrectly about science.
I beg to differ:
Aristotle’s works were lost in the West after the decline of Rome. During the 9th century AD, Arab scholars introduced Aristotle, in Arabic translation, to the Islamic world. The 12th-century Spanish-Arab philosopher Averroës is the best known of the Arabic scholars who studied and commented on Aristotle. In the 13th century, the Latin West renewed its interest in Aristotle’s work, and Saint Thomas Aquinas found in it a philosophical foundation for Christian thought. Church officials at first questioned Aquinas’s use of Aristotle; in the early stages of its rediscovery, Aristotle’s philosophy was regarded with some suspicion, largely because his teachings were thought to lead to a materialistic view of the world. Nevertheless, the work of Aquinas was accepted, and the later philosophy of scholasticism continued the philosophical tradition based on Aquinas’s adaptation of Aristotelian thought.
The influence of Aristotle’s philosophy has been pervasive; it has even helped to shape modern language and common sense. His doctrine of the Prime Mover as final cause played an important role in theology. Until the 20th century, logic meant Aristotle’s logic. Until the Renaissance, and even later, astronomers and poets alike admired his concept of the universe. Zoology rested on Aristotle’s work until British scientist Charles Darwin modified the doctrine of the changelessness of species in the 19th century. In the 20th century a new appreciation has developed of Aristotle’s method and its relevance to education, literary criticism, the analysis of human action, and political analysis.Not only the discipline of zoology, but also the world of learning as a whole, seems to amply justify Darwin’s remark that the intellectual heroes of his own time "were mere schoolboys compared to old Aristotle."
Of the five remaining, Aristotle is my #2 . I would argue that Aristotle is as important a figure in the founding of Western Civilization as Augustus Caesar (who, imho, pales in significance to Alexander, but that’s why we play the game, eh?)