The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 149

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRERSunday, November 19, 1978 PEOPLE TODAY HI IK DR. WALTER LANGSAM believes list of history's 100 most influential people is 'a butterfly Enquirer photo BY ED REINKE 1 a List Tells Reader More About Author Than His Subject Continued from Page MO. (The Enqutrer asked two local scholars to review Hart's list and comment Here are their responses. Ed.) BY JOHN N. FELTEN SJ It seems a truism that one can hardly speak or write anything without, perhaps unintentionally, saying something about himself.

Michael Hart's list of the 100 most influential persons In history and his defense of the list are a rather extreme example of this phenomenon. Hart certainly tells the reader much more about himself than he does about the myriad events in the history of the human race. The astute reader would certainly know, without being told, that the writer is a scientist, that he knows more of American history than that of any other place (though he appears to have boned up on China), that he knows almost nothing of the Middle Ages of Europe. For myself, I wish I could read Chinese and knew Chinese history. I wish I knew more of the great Sanskrit literature.

I want to read all of Dante in the original, but, as the expression goes, art is long and life is fleeting. Rather than contemn Michael Hart for not knowing quite everything, it should simply be noted that what we have here Is a large exercise in subjectivity-and a fascinating one. MY OWN bias would be to give more credit to the persons who came up with the seminal Ideas which Influenced subsequent thought I happen to think that ideas are more influential than things; Ideas do In fact sooner or later affect even things. Hence, I would probably include Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Archimedes, certainly Thomas Aquinas, perhaps Wittgenstein. It may be too early to Include Heidegger.

On this basis, I would eliminate Daguerre; he invented indeed a clever and useful gadget, but It is after all a mere gadget Even If we grant much importance to material things, my Inclination would be to give more credit to a fully deliberate inventor or discoverer than to a person who happened to stumble across something useful while he was really looking for something else. On this score, I would myself rule out Columbus, who was actually trying to get to India and was probably annoyed to find the Western Hemisphere In his way. IN THE arts, where, I ask, are Aeschylus and Sophocles? Where is Praxiteles? I suppose I could settle for Homer In place of Vergil, but with Barbara Tuchman I want to know where Dante is. If Hart insists on Picasso because he was an innovator, what about Schoenberg? Still, both axe too recent for inclusion. Unless I have been careless In my reading, I cannot find a single historian.

Herodotus andor Thucydides would get my vote. Heinrich Schlle-mann (discoverer of Troy) might well lead the archaeologists. They too are In a sense scientists, and Schllemann would in my book cross the fln-- ish line before Plncus by several lengths. The religious leaders are fascinating. His billing as co-founder of Christianity with Jesus Christ (my first choice) might provoke some wry amusement in St Paul, or perhaps an explosion of Indignation.

Where is the founder of Western Monastlclsm, St. Benedict? I think President John Adams might have picked Ignatius Loyola, and for quite different reasons I would tend to agree with him. To avoid the charge of being too provlnclally western European, I might propose Mahatma Gandhi as deserving of consideration. I would probably exclude Julius Caesar; Qaul was for him principally a political brickbat for use against the Roman senate, and his calendar has been replaced by that of Pope Gregory XIII. I think I would exclude Washington In favor of Lincoln.

I would replace J. P. Kennedy with the authors of the Federalist Papers. Plzzaro, Cortes and DaOama were opportunists and adventurers; it is not certain that any of them ever entertaln-; ed a serious thought apart from that of monetary gain. If Franklin Roosevelt, why not Winston Churchill? So there It is, my own exercise in subjectivity.

1 1 am grateful to Michael Hart and to The Enqutr-i erf or the opportunity. Father Felten is a professor of classics In his 22nd year on the faculty of Xavler University. During that time he spent nine years as Dean of the Col-; lege of Arts and Sciences, and he has had much to do with Xavier's prestigious Honors AB pro- gram. His degrees in classics are from Loyola, St. Louis and Oxford Universities.

1 I jri I Br9hese fragrance I I I its past is a prelude. Enquirer photo BY GERRY WOLTER JOHN N. FELTEN, SJ and, Indeed, had no desire to read it. For, In my opinion, no one can rank accurately the hundred most-anything among all the men and women who have peopled the Earth since the beginning of history. Yet, inasmuch as the editor is unusually persuasive, and since I was promised a summary of the author's selection criteria and his list of rankings, I agreed to the request.

Would that I had remained firm in my initial reaction! MR. HART'S criteria that only "real persons' were eligible for listing and that emphasis be on influence not greatness, are plain enough. The decision to equate "a significant impact on one important country" with "a less commanding influence affecting the entire Earth," offers a less tangible guideline. And the goal "to divide the credit for a given development in proportion to each participant's contribution" seems to me unattainable. The resulting attempt to calculate, for example, who should be ranked 71 Instead of 70 or 72, vividly reminds me of my history professor of 55 years ago, who recorded numerical grades "only to the third decimal place," because carrying them further would be "a little difficult." Bearing In mind that Mr.

Hart is a scientist, it is not astonishing that the list of 100 includes some 38 scientists and inventors. There are 28 persons from Great Britain and the United States. All Western, Central, and Northern Europe, excluding Great Britain, are represented by 39 names; the Near East and Middle East by 12; the Far East, mainly China and India, by 11; Ancient Greece and Rome by six; Russia by three and Latin America by Bolivar. Mohammed, then, is ranked first; Newton, second; and Christ, third. Beethoven (42) is listed 32 numbers above Bach, with Heisenberg, Asoka, William Morton and Nlkolaus Otto scattered between them.

Among omissions are LI Po, Hammurabi, Pericles, Hippocrates, Lady Murasaki, Aquinas, Rembrandt, Lincoln, Bismarck, Gandhi, Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Sabln. Cromwell, In spot 47, outranks not only the above, but Stalin (63), Roentgen (73), Fermi (76), Charlemagne (85), and Cyrus the Great (86). Lenin (15) falls between Aristotle and Moses. Plzarro (66) ranks three over William the Conqueror. John Kennedy, for having authorized the Apollo space program, is No.

80, three below Mal-thus, student of population growth, and just ahead of Gregory Plncus, developer of an oral contraceptive. Hitler (35) supposedly has been more Influential in world history than, for example, Plato, St. Augustine, Caesar, Jefferson, or Edison. Because, says Mr. Hart, "a galaxy of influential figures will naturally be composed of Individuals who had both the talent and the opportunity to exert a great influence," and because "women have generally been denied such opportunities," only two women are listed: Queen Isabella (68) and Elizabeth I (95).

Truly, as one gentle critic put it, a "this is a butterfly matter." Dr. Langsam, president emeritus of the University of Cincinnati, received his doctorate in history from Columbia University. Holder of numerous honorary degrees, he has authored more than a dozen history texts. His current book teThe World and Warren's Cartoons. More than 700 years ago, East met West in Italy.

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