(December 6, 2023 at 3:55 pm)Angrboda Wrote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”
Isaac Newton
It's not clear where the dividing line is. The great man theory seems to propose that the alleged great men are ones of a few who could have played the role that they did, whether due to genetics or environment or temperament. But it's not clear whether it's men possessing the right stuff are rare, or that rather there are rare opportunities to play such roles and given nature, the supply of people with the right stuff is plentiful, it's the rarity of such roles that produces the effect that these men are in any sense exceptional.
The great man theory, in James version at least, and in mine, would hold that it is both that peculiar people are rare (for example geniuses are uncommon) and that such a person has to have a rare and unlikely set of circumstances. Double rare, so to speak.
