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I agree that it's hard to compare people's intellect, especially dead vs living. However Newton and Einstein were humen as well, and not unlikely had their impo

I agree that it's hard to compare people's intellect, especially dead vs living. However Newton and Einstein were humen as well, and not unlikely had their importance subject to exaggeration, misrepresentation and misunderstanding. When you become a celebrity other factors than significance comes into play, sometimes out of the control of the person.

hirundo 5y ago
True. But Newton and Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the universe in a way that a Feynman, Hawking or Gell-Mann didn't. I doubt these gentlemen would have disagreed with that.
- qchris 5y ago
  I'd be much more willing to put Gell-Mann on that list than Hawking or Feynman. To me, his discovery of the ability to make accurate predictions about the existence of fundamental particles based on symmetry groups forms a pillar of theoretical particle physics and the composition of the Standard Model, in the same kind of way that Einstein's application of differential geometry to the concept of space-time does. Newton will sort of always stand apart in that he was "the first", but I think that grouping Gell-Mann (no pun intended) with Hawking and Feynman, who although both brilliant and huge personalities, weren't the same level of "giant upon whose shoulders others stand" that Einstein and Gell-Mann's work ended up being is somewhat unfair.
ThinkBeat 5y ago
According to the book "When Einstein Walked with Gödel" Einstein was not comfortable with all the attention and adoration he was receiving. One of the reason Einstein and Gödel spent a lot of time together was that he did not care how famous Einstein was, and was not afraid to disagree. He was also not shy about sharing his own work with Einstein.
- wrycoder 5y ago
  Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del

hirundo 5y ago

True. But Newton and Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the universe in a way that a Feynman, Hawking or Gell-Mann didn't. I doubt these gentlemen would have disagreed with that.

qchris 5y ago
I'd be much more willing to put Gell-Mann on that list than Hawking or Feynman. To me, his discovery of the ability to make accurate predictions about the existence of fundamental particles based on symmetry groups forms a pillar of theoretical particle physics and the composition of the Standard Model, in the same kind of way that Einstein's application of differential geometry to the concept of space-time does. Newton will sort of always stand apart in that he was "the first", but I think that grouping Gell-Mann (no pun intended) with Hawking and Feynman, who although both brilliant and huge personalities, weren't the same level of "giant upon whose shoulders others stand" that Einstein and Gell-Mann's work ended up being is somewhat unfair.

ThinkBeat 5y ago

According to the book "When Einstein Walked with Gödel" Einstein was not comfortable with all the attention and adoration he was receiving. One of the reason Einstein and Gödel spent a lot of time together was that he did not care how famous Einstein was, and was not afraid to disagree. He was also not shy about sharing his own work with Einstein.

wrycoder 5y ago
Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del