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If we're talking about the historical theory, the systems angle doesn't deny that smart people exist. It just highlights that Einstein was born at the right tim
by beaconstudios 5y ago
If we're talking about the historical theory, the systems angle doesn't deny that smart people exist. It just highlights that Einstein was born at the right time and in the right environment to become a great person - 50 years earlier and the groundwork he relied on would not have existed, and he would've been stuck laying that groundwork himself. I feel like Kuhn's "the structure of scientific revolutions" lays out the case well, in that incremental improvements set up for a massive paradigm shift, but both the iteration and the revolution are conducted by smart people.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoThis is assuming you can separate a person from their environment, which is a highly dubious counterfactual that becomes stranger the more you consider it. If through some freak accident in probability and a family tradition of extramarital affairs with Germanic slaves someone genetically identical to Einstein was born gens Claudia in the early imperial period of Rome, he simply wouldn't be the same person. A person's experiences and circumstances are an inexorable part of that person. They are part of what makes them great (or not). You simply can't remove the person from their environment.
- beaconstudios 5y agoThat is also very true, there are many layers to a systemic (or critical, if you prefer) perspective.