RE: [asa] Lincoln and Darwin

Quoting "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>:

> " 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,

----which is just another way of saying "nobody's special", to quote Dash from
"The Incredibles".

Chris, I wonder how much knowledgeable arts people could point to inherited
styles & influences, in music as well. Artists often chafe at the dictatorship
of economic reward, yet they want to eat too. So in a way, "good art" that
yields the highest return from the public survives and inspires for a while.
But of course the brilliance often isn't recognized by the public during the
artist's life. Or is it ---by other artists?

--Merv

> 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 13:26:06 2009