this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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What's something that's not common knowledge but you think everyone should know? (kbin.social)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Specifically thinking of stuff that make your life better in the long run but all kinds of answers are welcome!

I've recently learnt about lifetraps and it's made a huge positive impact on how I view myself and my relationships

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a very generous interpretation. I don't think anyone can be blamed for not taking it seriously.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For taking what seriously? Your comment is a fair bit ambiguous.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So is yours, ambiguous I mean.

In other words, I think you're being ridiculously over-generous in your interpretation of ancient knowledge.

If it were in fact the case that the ancients had any real notion of Darwinian theory, I think they would have stated it in unequivocal terms, as they did with so many other Platonic and/or Aristotlean concepts.

Vaguely suggestive biblical lines interpreted as somehow suggesting an understanding of Darwinian theory strikes me as wishful thinking.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In the beginning, there were many freaks. Earth undertook Experiments - bizarrely put together, weird of look Hermaphrodites, partaking of both sexes, but neither; some Bereft of feet, or orphaned of their hands, and others dumb, Being devoid of mouth; and others yet, with no eyes, blind.

Some had their limbs stuck to the body, tightly in a bind, And couldn't do anything, or move, and so could not evade Harm, or forage for bare necessities. And the Earth made Other kinds of monsters too, but in vain, since with each, Nature frowned upon their growth; they were not able to reach The flowering of adulthood, nor find food on which to feed, Nor be joined in the act of Venus.

For all creatures need many different things, we realize, to multiply And to forge out the links of generations: a supply Of food, first, and a means for the engendering seed to flow Throughout the body and out of the lax limbs; and also so The female and the male can mate, a means they can employ In order to impart and to receive their mutual joy.

Then, many kinds of creatures must have vanished with no trace Because they could not reproduce or hammer out their race. For any beast you look upon that drinks life-giving air, Has either wits, or bravery, or fleetness of foot to spare, Ensuring its survival from its genesis to now."

  • Leucretius, De Rerum Natura book 5 lines 837-859 (50 BCE)

So ambiguous....