Who was the most influential person in human history?

[Mott the Hoople]

Being objective here would be my choices as the most influential person in human history.

Muhammad
Sir Isaac Newton
Jesus Christ
Tsai Lun
Johannas Guttenburg

My rational is as follows. I chose Muhammad as first because though there are more Christians than Muslims Muhammad was as influential as a religious philosopher and a politician, where as Jesus main influece is as a religious philosopher meaning Muhammad doubles up on his influence.

Picking one and two was really, really hard as you can make a great argument for Newton, the most influential scientist of all time. With the great philosophers we tend to judge their influence quantitatively, where no philosopher comes even close to the qualitative influence of Newton, who stands alone. When you balance out Muhammads religeous and political influence, he edges out Newton.

Jesus is third as having the greatest relgious/philosophical influence of any person in history.

Tsai Lun and Guttenburg are tough to place as with out them, then the influence of the first three would certainly not have been nearly as profound.

Tsai Lun founded the ancient traditional Chinese religion from whose philosophy all the great religions have borrowed from. Tsai Lun is also credited as the inventor of paper. That invention alone would put him on this list but his philisophical/religeous contribution edges him out over Guttenburg.

Guttenburg is last on the list but he did invent the most profound and influential invention of all time.

Anyways, it could be argued that anyone of these five are the most influential persons in human history.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

The guys who invented oil and antibiotics could be said to be the most influential people to the most people, because we'd probably have 1/6 our human population right now if they didn't exist.

 

[Damocles]

Buddha doesn't even make your list, eh? Seems a bit Western Centric in the religious philosophy front.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Tsai Lun founded the ancient traditional Chinese religion from whose philosophy all the great religions have borrowed from. Tsai Lun is also credited as the inventor of paper. That invention alone would put him on this list but his philosophical/religious contribution edges him out over Guttenburg.

Tsai Lun was born in 100 AD. That places him ahead of Christianity and Judaism, although he could have still influenced Islam. Hinduism and Buddhism were both much older than either, but because of the proximity they could've been easily influenced anyway.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Buddha doesn't even make your list, eh? Seems a bit Western Centric in the religious philosophy front.

There are like 500 million Buddhists in the world. And Buddhists aren't nearly as fanatical and delusional as Christians or Muslims, so there's no way that Buddha could even compare.

 

[Damocles]

There are like 500 million Buddhists in the world. And Buddhists aren't nearly as fanatical and delusional as Christians or Muslims, so there's no way that Buddha could even compare.

Buddhism has influenced almost all Asian philosophies. It would be incomparably ignorant to reject such a fact and pretend that only Buddhists were influenced by him.

 

[Cancel3]

The proliferation of the written word was a profound turning point for humanity. Were we still left with hand scribed books as our only source of written information, we would have far less of the modern civilization we enjoy.

The percentage of the population that is literate increased by leaps and bounds because of the increase in available books and other reading material.

Without this invention, the rest of the people would be less well known and the information from religions would be more controlled and controlling.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

But people weren't generally very literate until the modern century.

Because oil and antibiotics allowed them the luxury.

 

[Damocles]

But people weren't generally very literate until the modern century.

Because oil and antibiotics allowed them the luxury.

The information passed on through books allowed those people to understand and create antibiotics, without the information exchange each new generation would have minimal advance because of the constant need to rediscover what has already been found by others.

That "most" people were not literate would not change that without the information exchange allowed by the printed word, it is unlikely that the advances they are known for would have happened.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

The information passed on through books allowed those people to understand and create antibiotics, without the information exchange each new generation would have minimal advance because of the constant need to rediscover what has already been found by others.

That "most" people were not literate would not change that without the information exchange allowed by the printed word, it is unlikely that the advances they are known for would have happened.

And without a power supply the CPU wouldn't run, so certainly the CPU is the least important part of a computer? Arguing that something wouldn't exist without something else is ultimately an idiotic way to waste your time, because it's all part of a system, and paper would be irrelevant without oil.

 

[Damocles]

And without a power supply the CPU wouldn't run, so certainly the CPU is the least important part of a computer? Arguing that something wouldn't exist without something else is ultimately an idiotic way to waste your time, because it's all part of a system, and paper would be irrelevant without oil.

What do you think "influence" means? It is how one thing effects the other. It is what the thread is about.

The printed word most definitely influenced the advances you are saying were the most influential. You argue that their existence created the largest influence, I suggest that they are only part of the larger influence that came from information exchange only allowed because of something with greater influence.

If you feel it is a waste of time, don't comment in a thread that is literally about what you don't want to speak on.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

The guys who invented oil and antibiotics could be said to be the most influential people to the most people, because we'd probably have 1/6 our human population right now if they didn't exist.

Not to parse words but oil and antibiotics were not invented but discovered. I also think you over estimate their influence. For example. What's more influential, the discovery of oil or the invention of the internal combustion engine and it's underpinning of Newtonian physics? Ditto for antibiotics. What's more influential the discovery of antibiotics or evolutionary theory which is its scientific underpinning?

If my list was "Most influential scientist" then certainly Charles Darwin would be #2 on the list.

Same with Inventors, though I'd place Nickolaus Otto much farther down the list of most influential inventors. That list would be;

Tsai Lun (invented paper)
Guttenburg (invented movable type printing press)
James Watt (invented steam engine)
Eli Whitney (invented American Manufacturing system of interchangeable parts combined with power machinery)
Nickolaus Otto (inventor of internal combustion engine)
Henry Ford (inventor modern assembly line)

Notice that these all come in historical order? That is because the preceding inventor had a profound influence on those who came after.

 

[Obfuscate]

Jesus and Adam Smith {in Westurn Culture at least}

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Buddha doesn't even make your list, eh? Seems a bit Western Centric in the religious philosophy front.

I did give serous thought to both Buddha and Confucious as well as to St. Pete. Where would Christianity have gone with out it's most influential proselytizer? But since I was limiting it to five, I had to make some tough choices.

As for being western centric. I don't think so. Two of the choices are middle eastern (semitic), one is Chinese and two are western European. If I was to expand the list to 8 I would include;

#6. Buddha
#7. Confucious
#8. St. Pete

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Buddhism has influenced almost all Asian philosophies. It would be incomparably ignorant to reject such a fact and pretend that only Buddhists were influenced by him.

I agree.

 

[Cancel3]

What do you think "influence" means? It is how one thing effects the other. It is what the thread is about.

The printed word most definitely influenced the advances you are saying were the most influential. You argue that their existence created the largest influence, I suggest that they are only part of the larger influence that came from information exchange only allowed because of something with greater influence.

If you feel it is a waste of time, don't comment in a thread that is literally about what you don't want to speak on.

Prior to the printing press, books were written by hand. So the bulk of the information passed on from one generation to the next was done so verbally.

Can you imagine trying to verbally explain everything?

One scientist or researcher does so much. The next generation of scientist, researcher, or medical person would have to duplicate much of the same steps to continue. With the printed word, they build on the previous work to a much greater degree.

Its not that it is one part of the system, its that the system exists because the written word meant less duplication of efforts.

It was also the first step in putting information to the masses.



Knowledge is power. No other single person has had a more profound effect on spreading knowledge to more people.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Jesus and Adam Smith {in Westurn Culture at least}

Adam Smith? Get real. I don't think he'd even make the top 10 list of most or even the top 100 most influential in western Civilizaton. That top 10 list would be like this in order of influence;

Sir Isaac Newton
Jesus Christ
St. Pete
Guttenburg
Aristotle
Charles Darwin
Louis Pasteour
Galileo
Euclid
Augustus Ceaser

 

[Damocles]

I did give serous thought to both Buddha and Confucious as well as to St. Pete. Where would Christianity have gone with out it's most influential proselytizer? But since I was limiting it to five, I had to make some tough choices.

As for being western centric. I don't think so. Two of the choices are middle eastern (semitic), one is Chinese and two are western European. If I was to expand the list to 8 I would include;

#6. Buddha
#7. Confucious
#8. St. Pete

Middle eastern is Western. Even Islam is a western religion. It is my belief that the closeness of the teaching tends to lend even more enmity to the clash. All beginning with Abraham, three religions of Western philosophy.

 

[LadyT]

I don't see Oprah Winfrey up there.

 

[Obfuscate]

Adam Smith? Get real. I don't think he'd even make the top 10 list

The world economy would not be what it is without his influence. He's easily the most influential economist in westurn history and the economy is the most important thing for mankind and living standards. Just because the average idiot doesn't understand these things that's fine, doesn't mean in real influence he's not towards the top.