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> There is a very clear heritage of the ideas of those Ancient Greek thinkers which have moved and influence world history. Yes, there is. But that is a very d
by gliese1337 6y ago
> There is a very clear heritage of the ideas of those Ancient Greek thinkers which have moved and influence world history.
Yes, there is. But that is a very different thing from having very clear evidence that those ideas originated uniquely in a specific small set of brains whose owner's names are recorded. "This person's writings have a clear influence on history" is a very different claim from "This person was the very first person to ever think the thoughts that he wrote down."
- achillesheels 6y agoOriginal minds do not find satisfaction in being derivative. Searching for truth leads to originality for this very reason. So it is safe to say that Socrates was a novelty in the human race because of his philosophical turn towards examining moral knowledge, which there was no previous recording of. I guess I don’t see the point in questioning it, chiefly because such genius is normally a culmination of rare and successful inter-generational cultural growth, so it really is “one-of-a-kind.”