True, but history is repleted with cases of geniuses who contributed substantial to human understanding or technology who also promoted/advanced really awful/useless ideas. Some celebrates folks who immediately come to mind are Pythagorus, Kepler, Newton, Tesla, Pauling, and Heimlich. Heck, even Steven Hawking. But we seldom here about their fail ideas because it is (1) not usually worth much time to dwell on such clunkers, and (2) reminding the public of the fail ideas of these hero-worshipped science/tech idols isn't usually a good commercial media sell.Originally Posted by limitles
No more than most, although he did get a rocket to land it's ass back on terra firma
Instead, as an graduate academic advisor once counseled me (when he saw that I was enthusiastically displaying hero worship of one the much-celebrated-at-the-time academic giants in my field), a good thinker evaluates an idea on its own merit, *not* who makes it. And I'm sure that you will agree that this notion applies to the game of poker, yes?
On a related note, I get the impression that you enjoy challenging yourself to think and learn and learn about ideas. If you haven't heard of this podcast, you might want to check it out.
http://historyofphilosophy.net
The guy who puts this out makes an otherwise laborious subject quite interesting with his presentation and sense of humor. But, he seems pretty thorough in discussing the *many* philosphers and theologians, at least the Western and Islamic ones. But he is still working his way through the Mediaval period, so you'll have to wait for more recent ones.
Also, he started a similar podcast covering Indian philosophy with a coauthor who specializes in that area.
http://historyofphilosophy.net/india
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