Is he smarter than 95 percent of intellectuals today?

>>8640585
Remember Newton wrote more on Teology than he did physics.

European intellectuals from the 17th,18th,19th century were probably on average more intelligent than today's academics, lets be honest

education today sucks, back then it was required to master greek and latin before you were even allowed in college

>>8640593
That's not Newton, that's Leibniz

>>8640585
why not both?

do you even realize HOW MUCH academic degrees have gone through inflation since his time?

To be a polymath today would not be possible because you have 1000 years of collective knowledge to catch up on. No matter how smart you are cannot possibly contribute to 5+ fields.

>>8640598
are you saying Education was harder back then?

>>8640597
...I know, it's in the file name.
Kohai, are you not experienced with the "Newton was better than Leibniz" meme?

>>8640600
CS Pierce?

>>8640607
no. back then there were far less universities and places in those universities, and I'm guessing that it wasn't the smartest ones that got left behind because of this higher exclusivity

so statistically they might all as well be smarter (relatively speaking) than 95% of intellectuals today

>>8640628
assuming that the access to renaissance universities was mostly based on intellectual potential instead of money and social status

doubt.jpg

that's leaving aside that intellectual potential depends on upbringing which depends on the social status

>>8640654
I agree with all of that
today just isn't different enough for this to be a relevant factor in our comparison

>>8640594
Have you actually engaged with the thought of academics from that time that have been forgotten?

>>8640678
what
today a much higher percent of population has the possibility to get education, even the most poor peasant can, in any 1-st world country and in many developing countries too

>>8640689
but rarely elite education and never at the cost of rich dumbkids not getting elite education (in other words, see: academic inflation)

>>8640600
>This is what they sell you.

>>8640607
It wasn't necessarily harder, but it was liberal, aristocratic, not vocational.

Exceptional people today rarely go into anything worthwhile, because business and economics pays better and gives higher status. And leaves nothing at all worthwhile behind.

>>8640697

the eliteness of your university is only important as the selling point, both for the universities to sell their education (for a good reason because it usually means their education is indeed of a high quality) and for you to sell yourself on the job market, it's not what we are speaking about, nobody bars even autodidacts from the academia, albeit one should be a kind of pretentious person to aim for academia as an autodidact nowadays, not having even some unrelated uni education

>>8640720
>Exceptional people today rarely go into anything worthwhile, because business and economics pays better and gives higher status
it was the same back then when people mostly studied law and theology to be lawyers and clerics

>>8640747
>>Exceptional people

Why are 4channers in general so neurotic about who is better than who? I mean, straight up honest question. /lit/ and /sci/ is all about who is smarter, who has the greatest IQ, who "ends philosophy", who is top scientist, who is a hack and who isn't, then there is /fit/ which is manlet and fat shaming all over, /x/ in a competition on the most spooky one liner mystical response, /tv/ worried about kino measuring RT reviews, in /ic/ there is just kids "wisely" criticizing each other to feel superior, then there is always racist and mysoginist stuff throughout, with long winded discussions on whether there is some natural reason for whatever quality and shit.

> Is he smarter than 95 percent of intellectuals today?
>or was it just easier to be a polymath during his time?
Seriously, what's the fucking point of this kind of shit? Are you even listening to what you're writing? Leibniz is now pure grass with pieces of a skeleton somewhere, though he was some guy and he wrote some shit and people were inspired by this shit and wrote more upon it, others criticized that shit. That's all, fuck it. Could be a great guy, I don't know. But here we are now, what about it?

Do you want to be a polymath that is smarter than 95 percent of intellectuals today? That's what I read in what you're saying and the fuck do you want that for? Is life not okay as it is? Are you going to be saved from something by being that? What does it achieve other than you become desirable to others? Why not drop the fuck out of this mentality and just be chill and do things you think are cool and great, do math or preach your religion, the fuck you want. And you'll die the same way either way.

wew

>>8640777
Nice trips, but you're still mad as fuck

>>8640777
Woah Nietzsche, calm the hell down.

>>8640777
>DUDE NOTHING MATTERS LMAO, BUT ILL STILL MAKE POSTS CRITICIZING OTHER VIEWPOINTS LOL

>>8640585
>What does it achieve other than you become desirable to others?
This all that's important for most people.

>>8640799
DONT FUCKING BRING NIETZSCHE INTO THIS YOU UNEDUCATED SWINE, HE IS NOTHING LIKE THE DARK LORD OF PHILOSOPHICAL INSIGHT.

PRAISE NIETZSCHE

>>8640777
>chill

the better smarter stronger thing is everywhere and it takes a minimum mental effort to escape it, if you actually grow aware of alternative. Most people on 4chan are likely to have more problems with excess time than mental energy.

It's not like this thread is worse than the others currently active. So maybe the question is why are you wasting time raging at it?

>>8640585
Once you realize everything is monads, and therefore are governed by the same principles, mastering several disciples becomes easy. The main feature of a classical education is not learning Greek and Latin for the hell of it or to appear lit. It's to read the classical texts wherein the interconnectedness of all arts and sciences has always been known and taught as the basis of universal knowledge. Being a Renaissance man is not impossible, even though it is a current that has been battled back since it began, and on in which we are centuries departed from today. /lit/ however is too reliant on petty nominalism and their "style is all you need" mentality to ever become anything more than anons.

>>8640777 here

First time here in like a year. I was a regular poster before that. I checked to see how /lit/ was going and nothing changed. Perhaps people have changed (I left, maybe others have left, maybe others came). I'm not particularly mad, and this thread is not the best example of what I was saying, but I'm just a little surprised at the look of it, you know, when you look at it with a fresh head.

>>8640831
>So maybe the question is why are you wasting time raging at it?
The fuck do you know about wasting time, cunt.

:3

#peace

See ya fuckers

protip: get the fuck out of the here and move your asses

top fucking kek

>>8640840

Nice.
Lit BTFO, as usual.

>>8640840
>/lit/ however is too reliant on petty nominalism and their "style is all you need" mentality to ever become anything more than anons.

you're not

I'm not

you fell for the "stupid posts are the only representative posts" meme