Name an admired historical figure.Explain why.

[vesuvanprincess]

V.P.

I understand your point and agree but...

Aristotle also postulated "natural slaves" and the "natural inferiority of women".

That pretty much damns him in my eyes.

Sometimes we place our historical figures on pedestals and forget that they were still just humans. In the case of Aristotle, I already knew all of that as I wrote a lengthy essay about him for my college class. Despite his flaws (which were as common and deplorable as any man's) I still venerate him as a figure worthy of respect. I believe it important that we place our ancestors, heroes, villains and leaders within the historical context of their era. In this vein I can appreciate the founding fathers of my country as brilliant visionary statesmen and yet still condemn many of them as the owners of slaves. A man (or woman) of our modern age could not be given this same leeway because they know better. Just my opinion anyways.

[Wildor]

V.P.

The more I know you, the more I like you!

Your point is very well put. I truly like the way you think about this. Bravo.

[Edu]

I'll just throw in a name and then you lot can find out who he was and what he did:

Piet Pieterszoon Hein (or Pieter Pietersen Heyn)

[vesuvanprincess]

V.P.

The more I know you, the more I like you!

Your point is very well put. I truly like the way you think about this. Bravo.

*blink blink* Wow, thanks, that's a truly lovely compliment

[King Solomon]

Plato was the teacher of Aristotle but he was not the one forced to die for his beliefs for self administered poison. That would be Socrates who was in turn the teacher of Plato. Aristotle was the last of this well known Greek triumvirate and one of my personal favorite historical figures.

He did many things- writing books, coming up with the Hippocratic Oath, philosophizing but to me what marks him as a truly great man is that he spent his life teaching. Following in the footsteps of Plato and Socrates he founded his own school, the Lyceum, and was nearly killed for his scientific beliefs much as Socrates and Galileo.

But all of this falls short of what I see as his single most world changing accomplishment. One of his earliest students was a young Macedonian by the name of Alexander. We remember this student today as Alexander the Great. I have always been fascinated by military strategists and tacticians and I think it incredible that this man who left such an indelible mark on the world due to his keen mind would leave an even greater mark for training the mind of the most powerful leader of the ancient world.

well thank you for clearing that up. I knew one was a teacher and the other a student who went on, but i had forgotten about the last guy Socrates. They all made contributions to the Greek times.

[Wildor]

The first of many:

Isaac Asimov, one of the 3 generators of the Science Fiction genre, along with Arthur C. Clarke, and the 3rd, who I have not yet read any of his books..
Asimov wrote the I, Robot series, in which the famous 3 laws of robotics are written, and the Foundation series, in which the Zeroth law was added, and the basic failing-empire, new seed was started.

I want to come back to this one. Asimov was a superb writer and the way he managed to tie-up the different strands of his story-telling in his last books was something to behold. His non-fiction works, mostly vulgarisations of scientific thought and research, was always entertaining, thought-provoking and crystal clear. We are legions missing the man.

Bob, was the third name you didn't mention Robert A. Heinlein by any chance?

[∆nonymous]

What I like of PATTON is, he was never a political naif. Anonymous is right in praising ROMMEL'S military prowess, but the fact remains that he realized VERY late what kind of regime, and man, he was working for. A mistake PATTON would never have made.

I think that that's completely untrue. Rommel never commanded in the Russian theater of war, and never heard of the terrible atrocities that were committed there, as well as the execution of German Jews. What if the U.S.A., while Patton was fighting in North Africa, began a massive genocidal campaign against German- and Japanese-Americans? If they kept it under wraps, he would have been hard-pressed to have learned anything about it, just as in Rommel's situation.

Also, Patton was admittedly rather stubborn and fiercely patriotic. If he had been in Rommel's position, he would never have believed that such a thing was possible, and he would ignore any entreaties to help assassinate F.D.R.

In short, what you said is hero worship, and ignorant of the facts.

[abracax]

I really do like this thread.

There are several figures I admire in history a great deal.

Alexander the Great, for his strategies on the battle field. He was the first person to make the chariot obsolete on the battle field when faced with foot soldiers.

Ghenghis Khan, for several reasons. The biggest reason, his view on the world. He viewed every nation as his and all people within those nations as his children. He went to war to conquer them because as he once said, his children were being obstinate.

Nikola Tesla, he was far ahead of his time. Aside from his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. A few of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories, and early New Age occultism.

When he died, everything to do with him was confiscated by the government. Even his clothes. The man had inventions that were far ahead of his time, to this day they can't be figured out. Truly the greatest overlooked man in history.

[bob19991]

Everyone forgot, or at least the drinking age group....
Nancy Whiskey, she is highly influential, is she not?

And @ Wildor, probably

And I would second Tesla, the harmonic frequency machine is awesome...
And also add Thomas ap Catesby Jones, as he allowed the Battle of New Orleans to happen as it did, as he delayed the British fleet long enough to let Future President Andrew Jackson fortify the city, and create a name for himself, propelling his political career, so without
Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Jackson may not have become president.

[Wildor]

Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates (17 March 1880 – 16 March 1912)

This man's courage and self sacrifice has always been an inspiration to me

For anyone who doesn't know brief summary taken from Wikpedia below

(was an English Antarctic explorer. He was often referred to by the nickname "Titus Oates" after the historical figure. Oates is known for his honorable suicide when, aware his ill-health was compromising his companions' lives, he told them "I am just going outside and may be some time" before walking out into a blizzard.)

I was touched by this. Specially since I first read about Scott's last expedition when I was thirteen, just the right age to fantasize for weeks on end about it.

This gives me an idea however.
At the time, a debate raged about who was the greatest explorer between the heroic Scott and the pragmatic Amunsend.

Opinions?