Blame it on federal budget cuts that reduced roll-eye funding.
Anyway, I vote for Newton (if I had to pick one from the million or so equally-arguable candidates) as being among the first to promote the idea that the heavens followed the same rules we have here on Earth, and thus were not spheres of magic or the writing of God or whatever. Enlightenment, yo!
Moses, maybe.
Jesus, probably.
Aristotle, hopefully.
Jesus and Peter. Jesus for creating Christianity, and Peter for making it even worse and spreading it.
well, chances are there was some hunter about 10,000 years ago whose offspring include all those listed above. If he bit the dust early, things would turn out a little different, i think
In terms of influencing Western civilization, I’ll put in a vote for Leonidas (and his ostensible force of 300 Spartans).
By fighting so bravely and stalling Xerxes and his invading “Persian” hordes, Leonidas 1. gave the other Greek states time to organize their forces, and 2. motivated the Greek city states to band together (at least their armies) and defeat Xerxes.
Had Xerxes’ invasion been sucessful, the Greek Golden age would not have occurred. That, in turn, would have prevented the philosophical and epistemological foundation of Western Civilization from developing as it did. Moreover, Islam would quite probably have spread much further west, and possibly to all of Europe. In other words, if Leonidas hadn’t done what he did, and Xerxes had been successful, Western Civilization as we know it, may not have even come into being. How’s that for “influence”?
The battle only delayed the Persians for a week, and there was already an anti-Persian alliance.
Gonna agree with the good Captain. The Greek alliance was already quite firm. Leonidas’ stand was one of those grand, heroic gestures that make great press, but probably was a lot less decisive than popular histories give it credit for.
The fact is the Greeks had been counting on Thermopylae holding much longer than it did - there was supposed to be a full army deployed there, but the Spartans fucked up. As Herodotus notes: “None of them ever expected the battle of Thermopylae to be decided so soon - which was the reason why they sent only advance parties there.” The fact was that Thermopylae was really the equivalent of a Dunkirk - going under after just three days was initially a blow to Greek morale. That it ultimately proved a nice bit of propaganda for the Spartans ( whose slowness to move really brought about that debacle ), was a silver lining.
Artemisium and Salamis were far more decisive and those really didn’t depend on any time bought by Thermopylae. Quite the opposite - the fleet that had held out at Artemisium, giving better than it got, had its front unhinged by the loss of Thermopylae and had to retire ( shore support being a necessary prerequisite for that sort of close-land action ). If Xerxes hadn’t been so foolish as to insist on a grand spectacle, Salamis would never have happened and he likely would have won the war based on the strength of his position alone, Thermopylae or no.
It WAS ultimately a source of pride and nationalistic unity. But not a totally necessary one for victory, I suspect ( believe ).
I don’t think anyone influenced the direction of Western Civilization more than Emperor Constantine I.
There’s really no reason to suspect that Christianity would have gotten so popular without his conversion. Christians were a tiny oppressed minority operating on the fringe of society before him. Without Christianity, there’s no Papacy, no Crusades, no common European religion, much fewer succession wars, no Inquisition, (possibly) no Islam, and…wow…I can’t even think of the implications. The world would actually be a completely different place, and you can’t just say “someone else would have done what he did,” because his situation was unique.
There’s absolutely no reason to think that Xerxes would have been successful had Leonidas not stood against him. At the same time of the battle of Thermopylae, Athens was utterly TRASHING the Persian fleet. Without the Persian fleet to support him, Xerxes could not have kept the Greek alliance from swallowing him.
My vote is for Hippocrates, the father of medicine. Establishing medicine as a separate profession and making the claim that all ailments had a natural cause (even if the supposed causes were woefully wrong) was a huge step.
I also nominate Euclid. Although it’s thought he only compiled the contents of his book, Elements is likely to be the most influential non-religious book ever made.
How would you say Peter made Christianity “worse?” I’d also say the apostle Paul was the one most responsible for the spread of Christianity.
I recall a poll of historians not too long ago. It found Muhammad to be the most influential person on world history. Jesus was second – the consensus was that while Paul was pivotal in the spread of Christianity beyond its small cult origins, Muhammad could be solely credited with the spread of Islam.
Since the OP asked about western civilization, I think this poll would then point to Jesus as the most influential.
Um,Frank.
Back in post #17:
“If the state of the art is such that any number of people could have invented moveable type, then it is inevitable that someone will invent it.
I tend to agree, I think. I would only apply influential to one of a kind people, whose role could not have been filled by anyone else.”
By that reasoning,wouldn't the "state of the philosophy"-if you will-have inevitably produced a Moishe instead of a Jesus?
Or,in recent times,had there been no Beatles,would there be no one else to make that cultural summation?That’s not what happened according to Herodotus. The Greeks needed to hold the Persians off at the Thermopyle pass as well as Artemesium on the sea. The Greeks won the naval battle at Artemesium but that didn’t do much good because they ended up losing at Thermopyle.
Though Leonidus sent for reinforcements the 4,200 or so Greeks at Thermopyle fully expected to be able to hold off the Persians for a while. That famous path that Ephialtes showed Xerxes was already known to the Greeks and guarded by the Phocians with 1,000 men. Unfortunately when the Persian army came marching through the Phocians took to the high ground thinking they were going to be attacked and the Persians just marched right on through without a fight.
There was no strategic reason for the Spartans or the Thesbians to stay behind while the other Greeks fled as Leonidus ordered. The Thebans were there as well but that’s because Leonidas didn’t trust them and so kept them as hostages. The Spartans stuck around because it was against their code to retreat from a position they were suppose to guard. Thermopyle did very little to advance the Greek cause against Persia.
If you want to give credit to someone for making sure Greece could fight Persia you’d do better to look towards Themistocles of Athens. When Athens received a large sum of money they were going to divide among all the citizens. A few years before the Persian invasion Themistocles convinced them to instead build a 200 ship fleet to use against their neighbors in Aegina. Without a strong navy the Greeks would have been soundly defeated by the Persians.
Marc
Ignoring, of course, all the knowledge the church destroyed because it was deemed hersey. Although the church did indeed keep some knowledge alive, it didn’t allow that knowledge to spread and manipulated it for its own ends. This also completely ignores the role Islam had in preserving so many ancient works.
If we’re going to stick with one guy, and exclude Jesus as a possible option, I think it’s a toss-up amongst the great polymaths, principally Aristotle, Archimedes, Al-Faber, Da Vinci, Descartes and Jefferson.
ETA: After reading the thread over, I’m actually going to have to go with Paul. Christianity is definitely the largest influence over Western culture, and Paul takes almost all the credit for spreading it from a small cult into a widespread religion.
Easy. It’s Cecil.
To all those who corrected me (and there were a LOT :o ), thanks! I’d rather be wrong and learn what is right, than to be right and stagnant.
Or into a widespread *cult * depending on your viewpoint.
I think I’d hold out for Plato. It’s difficult to imagine what Western philosophy would look like without him.