APAD: On the shoulders of giants

来源: 2023-11-11 10:14:00 [博客] [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读:

Meaning: Each generation builds on the knowledge of the one before

 

Background: This phrase is often attributed to Isaac Newton but it was Bernard

de Chartres (10??-1130) who said something similar:

 

    "We are like dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and

    things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is

    superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up,

    and by their great stature add to ours."

 

To this day a visual reference to the shoulders of giants can be seen in the

south rose window of the Cathedral school of Chartres, which shows the four

major prophets - Jerimiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel as giant figures, and on

their shoulders sit the much smaller figures of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

 

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Wow. I always thought it was Newton!

 

I've also been wondering who gets to be hoisted onto those giant shoulders. Is

it a birthright, an achievement, or "thrusted upon," as Shakespeare said, some

poor bastards?