# Who is (or was) the Worlds Greatest Human? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 6, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781 "2003-04-06T01:31:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/1 "2003-04-06T01:31:17Z")
Sure, we’ve heard lots about people who caused great harm to humanity, like Stalin or Hitler. It’s quite easy to roll off a list of Truly Evil Figures. But a list of people who have greatly benefitted mankind through their efforts seems harder to find. This leads me to ask the debatable question: What person has benefitted mankind the most? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/2 "2003-04-06T01:35:39Z")
Isaac Newton. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/3 "2003-04-06T01:41:28Z")
That’s easy…my Dad. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/4 "2003-04-06T01:58:31Z")
[**Edward Jenner**](http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/jenner2.html) for the process of vaccinations that have eradicated smallpox, hopefully. **[Joseph Lister](http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/Lister.html)** and antiseptic surgery **Johann Gutenberg’s** printing press led to the vast expansion of human knowledge. Oh yeah, **John Pemberton** for inventing Coca-Cola 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/5 "2003-04-06T02:12:59Z")
Sir Winston Churchill. Hands down. ---
**Author:** ![Shaolinrabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Shaolinrabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaolinrabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/6 "2003-04-06T02:23:01Z")
I’ll second Johann Gutenberg. I think the printing press was probably the spearhead of mankind into the modern age, without it you could argue that no other advances in medicine or science would have been possible. After the printing press a man’s knowledge gained over a lifetime could be handed out to many people and piled upon other knowledges until a person today can carry the knowledge of a thousand lifetimes around in their head. [CHRISTIAN BRAIN] _What?! You don’t think it was Jesus?_ Jesus wasn’t technically a human in the traditional sense, although doctrinal opinion might make Him fully human, or partially God, or even fully God. As such, I still second Gutenberg. _Jesus will remember you said that._ [/CHRISTIAN BRAIN] ---
**Author:** ![skankweirdall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@skankweirdall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skankweirdall)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/7 "2003-04-06T02:57:48Z")
Strongbad. [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html](http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/8 "2003-04-06T03:24:00Z")
In chronological order: 1. The first human (or pre-human) to learn how to use fire. 2. Aristotle. 3. Galileo 4. Newton 5. Darwin And since the historical figures all started on what their predicessors had already accomplished, the final vote goes to #1. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/9 "2003-04-06T03:41:27Z")
How about [Norman Borlaug](http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm)? > [@](#): > > Borlaug is an eighty-two-year-old plant breeder who for most of the past five decades has lived in developing nations, teaching the techniques of high-yield agriculture. He received the Nobel in 1970, primarily for his work in reversing the food shortages that haunted India and Pakistan in the 1960s. Perhaps more than anyone else, Borlaug is responsible for the fact that throughout the postwar era, except in sub-Saharan Africa, global food production has expanded faster than the human population, averting the mass starvations that were widely predicted – for example, in the 1967 best seller Famine – 1975! The form of agriculture that Borlaug preaches **may have prevented a billion deaths**.\* ---
**Author:** ![barrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@barrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barrum)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/10 "2003-04-06T04:30:25Z")
My choice for greatest human being has to be Mahatma Ghandi but my choice for the person that beniffited mankind most would also be Gutenberg. ---
**Author:** ![shep\_proudfoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@shep\_proudfoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shep_proudfoot)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/11 "2003-04-06T04:39:08Z")
me ---
**Author:** ![Verminous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Verminous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Verminous)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/12 "2003-04-06T04:52:12Z")
Socrates - Plato - Aristotle : just for their contributions, they must be candidates. Ghandi could definitely be considered for this distinction. Same with Norman Borlaug, judging from what was posted. ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/13 "2003-04-06T05:07:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 5 time champ \* > \*\*[**Edward Jenner**](http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/jenner2.html) for the process of vaccinations that have eradicated smallpox, hopefully. > > **Johann Gutenberg’s** printing press led to the vast expansion of human knowledge.\*\* Jenner is a great choice. Gutenberg I’d have to disagree with: I’ve thought of this question before, and have come to the conclusion that “the world’s greatest human” must be someone who invented something that would otherwise not have been discovered (for centuries at least). I know that when some TV station did the top 100 achievments ever a few years back, Gutenberg and his printing press was #1 which startled me. So the question remains (in my head, at least), would someone have stumbled upon the printing press after Gutenberg? I’d like to think yes, but we’ll never know. And while I’d like to choose Einstein, Aristotle, da Vinci, & many others for making connections that may not have been seen otherwise, the world very well be at the same place in time without their conclusions. But I’d wager that without Isaac Newton’s contributions to Physics, we’d be centuries behind of where we are today. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/14 "2003-04-06T06:49:26Z")
> [@](#): > > The form of agriculture that Borlaug preaches may have prevented a billion deaths Billion, with a “B”! OMG How can someone save a billion lives and not be a household name? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/15 "2003-04-06T06:53:21Z")
Cecil. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/16 "2003-04-06T07:01:24Z")
I agree with **Bob55** on the Printing Press. It was the press itself which had such a profound impact on education, religion, etc. Gutenberg just made it. If you look at some scientists- Newton or Einstein for example- if they weren’t born, their greatest discoveries still wouldn’t have been found, and we wouldn’t have any of those concepts. I’d say Aristotle but his Scientific Method was flawed- hell many of his ideas were assumed true for 1500 years and are dead wrong. He had good intentions though. I don’t know where we’d be without Martin Luther. Not just Protestants. He brought the end of Catholic intolerance and began a new age. Ghandi, Abraham (Father of three main religions. Some may say that’s bad or good), Martin Luther King, Jesus (If you’re into that sort of thing). There are a lot of “good” people. Hard to say who’s the greatest. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/17 "2003-04-06T07:13:10Z")
**Blalron** , there was a thread on ol’ Norm [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150145&highlight=norman+borlaug). **Duck Duck Goose** provides the case why Borlaug has hurt more than helped . And others say that saving this generation will just cause twice as many to die later. Still, it’s too bad he is so unknown. It’s probably because it doesn’t concern Americans or Europeans. Same reason why no one knows what “golden rice” is. ---
**Author:** ![Philosophocles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/18 "2003-04-06T08:02:57Z")
Just for the sake of being the devil’s advocate–Leibniz also developed a system of calculus. Granted, Newton did Leibniz one better by using the new math toward developing breakthrough theories about the physical universe. But even if Newton had never been born, it’s quite possible that once Leibniz developed the powerful new mathematical tool of calculus, the genie was out of the bottle. Other natural philosophers would have inevitably applied this system of calculus to discover, piece-by-piece, a Newtonian-style theory of mechanics. Anyway, that’s just a theory. ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/19 "2003-04-06T08:29:22Z")
The person who invented writing. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781/20 "2003-04-06T09:26:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JThunder \* > \*\*Cecil. \*\* Preach it, Brother! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-or-was-the-worlds-greatest-human/166781.md?page=2)