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I think you have to decide whether by "influential" you mean the person who has had the most influence, or has affected the most people. To affect someone, you need not influence them directly.Take the case of Kublai Khan. Most Chinese would probably not have heard of him, but there can be no doubt that Chinese culture was greatly affected by Mongol rule. As there are now well over a billion Chinese, that's a lot of people that he has indirectly influenced.Quote And what about Buddha? No-one has mentioned him yet (at least, I didn't notice it). Doc yes Alan MacDougall has mentioned Buddha in a long post from yesterday. The philosophy of Karl Marx has affected untold people, as has that of Keynes (Capitalism).Queen Victoria, in whose name half the world came under British influence and many countries still retain much culture and laws based on the British - USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, much of Africa, etc.Or how about that ancient Greek bod who dreamed up democracy? (I think he was Greek)
And what about Buddha? No-one has mentioned him yet (at least, I didn't notice it).
Alan if that is how you feel about religions, why did you mention a lot of men to do with faith in an earlier long post of yours?EG Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, St. Paul. Lao Tzu? It is a strange view I think
Can anyone argue that the most influential people alive today are not Bill Gates & Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the internet)?
Quote from: DoctorBeaver on 14/09/2008 16:54:08Can anyone argue that the most influential people alive today are not Bill Gates & Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the internet)?Currently more people have access to (and have been influenced by) Mr Gutenberg's invention, than have access to the internet. i.e. books , newspapers.(Admittedly Mr Gutenberg is pushing up daisys).
The goalposts get changed, and what does Alan mean by "influenced", does anyone know?
Rosalind - The original question was phrased: "...the most influential person in history", not the person who has influenced an individual the most.
Quote from: Paul. on 14/09/2008 17:32:41The goalposts get changed, and what does Alan mean by "influenced", does anyone know?That is precisely why I wanted to differentiate between influence and effect.As for RD's point about Gutenburg, that's valid. But has Gutenburg been more influential than the person (or persons) who invented writing? Without writing, there would never have been printing presses.