Who is the greatest person in history?

CyberPundit · November 1, 2002, 11:26pm

Inspired by the greatest Briton thread.

Anyway my vote would go to the Buddha. IMO he is both the most humane and the most rational of the great world religous figures and he has had an enormous impact on Asian civilization and ,increasingly, world civilization as well.

After him Aristotle,Newton, Mohammed and Jesus come to mind.

Spoke · November 2, 2002, 12:01am

Alexander the Great is the fulcrum upon which history turned.

Bryan_Ekers · November 2, 2002, 1:38am

Alexander may have been the fulcrum, but Isaac Newton provided the leverage.

Manduck · November 2, 2002, 2:30am

Naw, that was Archimedes with the leverage.

Epimetheus · November 2, 2002, 3:59am

Charlemange.

litost · November 2, 2002, 4:01am

Mahatma Gandhi

RickJay · November 2, 2002, 4:43am

Jesus of Nazareth
Muhammad
Alexander The Great

Those are the biggies.

Qadgop_the_Mercotan · November 2, 2002, 5:27am

Area man. I see him in the headlines all the time!

area man

Urban_Ranger · November 2, 2002, 3:17pm

I reckon there is no one single greatest figure. A lot of things that happen later could not be possible without things that happened before.

Only two men mentioned above could be called great: the Buddha and Muhammad. Alexander conquered a bit of land. So? He might be great as a conquerer, but his empire didn’t last and he hardly has any lasting impact. Jesus of Nazareth might be great as a person, but there’s nothing new in his teaching. He got them from other beliefs that had existed before him. Newton made some important scientific contributions, but he was a bastard of a man. Besides, Leibniz also invented calculus and Galileo founded the basis of mechanics, so his real work was just in optics.

Homer_J · November 2, 2002, 7:22pm

i dont want to sound like a moron but what did Alexander the Great do?

Qadgop_the_Mercotan · November 2, 2002, 7:56pm

This from a person who chose Homer J as his posting name?

astro · November 2, 2002, 8:26pm

Alexander the Great on the Web

Conclusion
Alexander’s career marks a watershed not only in Greek history, but in the history of the entire Near East. Before Alexander, we speak of the Hellenic era (Hellas is the Greek word for Greece). After Alexander, we speak of the Hellenistic era. In the former era, Greece is more or less isolated or at least contained. The primary characteristic of the Hellenistic era is the spread of Greek culture across the entire Near East, and the mixing of Greek and Oriental currents. Alexander also marks the end of the threat of the East. One constant theme from the 6th century to the end of the 4th is the danger posed by various eastern kingdoms, especially Persia. Alexander ended this. Even after the Roman legions came, much of the Near East continued to regard Greek culture as the highest form and the one most worth imitating

galen · November 2, 2002, 10:22pm

Karl Marx. Hands down.

Virtuosity · November 2, 2002, 11:20pm

Leonardo DaVinci

Epimetheus · November 2, 2002, 11:33pm

Charlemenge is listed above, you didn’t mention him, are you saying what he did didn’t last or that he is not one that could be called great?

kniz · November 3, 2002, 12:31am

Eve. She set the tone and the rest is history.

occ · November 3, 2002, 11:26pm

I’d be curious who folks would say if the major religious figures (namely Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, etc.) were excluded. No offense to them or nothin’, but they seem to be too predictable as answers.

That said, my pick?

Er…hmm. Tough question. In fact, I can’t give an answer I’d believe in, as most of the “greats” were great in a single contribution to humanity. Someone like Da Vinci might qualify, being the original Rennaissance Man, contributing to both art and science, etcetera. Darwin would be up there, as I believe his work and that associated with him have given humanity a framework to comprehend themselves, the universe, etc.