英國人的貢獻

在歐洲，德國人自認為對哲學和音樂的貢獻良多，法國人覺得自己在文學和藝術裏功績卓著，意大利人則為他們的羅馬和文藝複興而自豪。他們常常會想：英國人都貢獻了什麽呢？憑什麽他們就成了兩個世紀的主宰者了呢？

我覺得，英國人的貢獻是容忍不同。

英國人十八世紀就沒有了新聞管製，那個國家能夠一比？

當然，英國人還貢獻了牛頓。法國的伏爾泰曾說過：“世間誰最偉大，是凱撒、亞曆山大，帖木爾還是克倫威爾? 都不是，而是牛頓。如果偉大的定義是用天賜的才能來啟蒙自己和他人，那麽牛頓當之無愧。王者隻是破壞宇宙，而牛頓卻是讓我們了解世界。王者用武力使人民臣服，智者如牛頓用真理的力量博得我們的尊敬。”

英國人還貢獻了達爾文。

不過，在西敏寺看到牛頓和達爾文的墓碑，回過來看還是自由，給有不同思想的人足夠的尊重。沒有那個國家，會讓這些科學家與皇室，或者權勢之人葬在一起。

[TNEGI//ETNI]

回複TNEGI//ETNI的評論:

The greatest englishman is not 牛頓 and 達爾文, but 弗朗西斯·培根 (Francis Bacon) and several the most famous statisticians: John Graunt, William Petty, Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, William Sealy Gosset and Ronald Fisher. These people established a complete new methodology to know the nature and the whole world. If there were not 弗朗西斯·培根, there would be no the statisticians; if there were NO the statisticians, we could not imagine the current sciences and techniques as well as the social progress.

[TNEGI//ETNI]

The greatest englishman is not 牛頓 and 達爾文, but 弗朗西斯·培根 (Francis Bacon) and several the most famous statisticians: John Graunt, William Petty, Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, Ronald Fisher and William Sealy Gosset. These people established a complete new methodology to know the nature and the whole world. If there were them, we could not imagine the current science and techniques as well as the social progress.

[yayajuju]

Add to your list of "英國人的貢獻":
1. English as a language
2. Constitutional Mornachy
3. Fine literature (painting and composing aren't quite as fine comparing to other European countries)
4. Oxford and Cambridge
5. Computer - Charles Babbage
6. Internet - Tim Berners-Lee (but invented in MIT)
7. Bicycles + TV
8. codified the rules for most international sports
9. Wimbledon
10.Discovery of DNA in Oxford
11.Steven Hawking
12.Economics (free trade, capitalism, liberalism)- Adam Smith, Keynes
13.The agricultural & industrial revolutions
14.Negative & colour photography
15.Hitchcoke
16.the BBC (no advertisement + fine quality + politically neutral)
17.Mechanical inventions (railway, gas turbine, jet engine, automobile, etc.)
18. Crime fictions (Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes...)
19. Children stories (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Rabbit, Harry Potter...)
20. Fantasy stories (Lord of the Ring, Dune...)

They have bad things as well,
(1) slave trade, but first to abolish the slave trade earlier than other countries.
(2) British Empire (although it did spread mordernity)
(3) Opium War
(4) Bad Food

[Anglophile]

Hi David, a friend just alert me of your blog. Very nice.

About the contributions of the Englishmen to the world, in addition to all the things that you mentioned, I must also add Magna Carta (the Great Charter of Freedoms). As early as 1215, English people already started to establish that the King must also obey the law, and that certain rights of people (freemen) were protected by these laws and must be respect. This really laid foundation that led to the constitutional forms of government of almost all developed countries today.