RE: [asa] Lincoln and Darwin

" I have heard it said that there might be another Einstein, but there will never be another Beethoven: only he could have written the Ninth Symphony."

Sounds like hero worship or celebrity worship. Everyone is special, and there are many great minds- many/most unheard of. If you'd ask Beethoven who he looked-up to, it would probably be another great- and so on down the line.

...Bernie

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Chris Barden
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 8:46 AM
To: mrb22667@kansas.net
Cc: gordon brown; asa
Subject: Re: [asa] Lincoln and Darwin

I realize it is not an "innovation" in the scientific sense, but many
developments in art and music, and all individual creations of such,
have been pioneered by specific people. I have heard it said that
there might be another Einstein, but there will never be another
Beethoven: only he could have written the Ninth Symphony. That said,
obviously certain features and/or capabilities in art have been lost
and rediscovered. Greek and Neoclassical styles being a good example.

Then again, Arnold Schoenberg and his school believed that music could
be written in a scientific sense. Too bad it wasn't popular.

Chris

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 12:40 PM, <mrb22667@kansas.net> wrote:
> Can anybody think of any innovation that was NOT built on (or an improvement of)
> previously existing ideas? As J.Diamond did a good job pointing out in his text
> ("Guns, Germs, & Steel" I think) most or nearly all innovations cannot be neatly
> attributed to one person's genius. The steam engine makes a great example where
> people like James Watt or Thomas Newcomen before him, and many others before
> that simply improved on older versions of the contraption; and before the
> contraption came others who had the idea or description but then never built it
> --all the way back to the Greeks with their aeolipile where influences begin to
> fade beyond our historical reach. I don't think it entirely an abuse of the
> word 'evolution' to co-opt it (over many objections, no doubt) as a description
> for innovation and invention. At least the analogy could be made that books and
> publications are like the hereditary mechanism (the DNA if you will) that
> provides material for future benefactors to add improvements of their own. The
> market of ideas and/or general usefulness provides the natural selection.
> Darwin was no exception as we've heard on this list. So it shouldn't stop us
> from celebrating brilliance where credit is due. After all, nobody really works
> from a vacuum.
>
> --Merv
>
> Quoting gordon brown <Gordon.Brown@Colorado.EDU>:
>
>> ... if Einstein had not accomplished what
>> he did in physics, others would have.
>>
>> It occurs to me that this observation might be made of individual
>> scientists in general. How many discoveries or ideas that had a major
>> influence on the development of science depended on the individual persons
>> who produced them? Wouldn't someone else have thought of natural
>> selection? (Some would say that Wallace did independently.) We would be
>> using calculus and Newton's laws today even if Newton had never lived. By
>> contrast, many wars started by megalomaniacs have profoundly affected the
>> direction of world history, as have the heroes who prevented them from
>> attaining their goals. Even so, we rightly admire the impressive
>> accomplishments of the individuals who were first to come up with
>> solutions to significant questions in science.
>>
>> Even though few people accomplish what noone else could, as Christians we
>> do know one man who did what noone else could have done: Jesus Christ.
>>
>> Gordon Brown (ASA member)
>>
>
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Received on Thu Feb 12 12:04:35 2009