h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thats true
I can't remember who said it and I think it was about politics rather than thought in general but it went something like
"We can't see further than our predecessors, we're standing on the shoulders of giants".

I don't think it was quite that
Hopefully the meaning is clear even if my rendition of it isn't

Its the title of an Oasis album, and also I think a book on the history of physics...looking up...'A Longer View of Newton & Halley'.

I think "*can* see further than our predeccessors..." is what you were looking for.

toxx

Universal is self explanatory, I think. A subset of this would be sufficient for "common". I'm not sure about your usage but I tend to use morals for specific rules, and ethics for underlying principles. So one would tend to have specific morals and an ethical "system"(albeit without a clear cut dividing line).

Noggin

The usage I've heard is that morals are personal, while ethics are more society-based.

Bouncy and Noggin. I would say that morality is a societal code of right and wrong. Ethics is consideration of the underlying principles such as utilitarianism or religion. So, for me, you have it the wrong way round, Bouncy.

Noggin. Does your 'universal' extend beyond the human race? I don't find it self-explanatory because that question can be asked.

toxx

BCat. I think the Newton quote is: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Personally, I prefer the "... it is because I have been surrounded by pygmies." version.

toxx

I think the version I read was from Trotsky, not someone I normally look for inspiration from, but I can't find the quote or recall it fully

""If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
This quote has been attributed to Sir Isaac Newton since it appeared in a letter he wrote to fellow English scientist Robert Hooke that was dated 5 February in either 1675 or 1676. There is no arguing that this quote in indeed Newton's"

Source:http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0162b.shtml

Simple Google.

toxx

Not argueing that Newton didn't say it first but I think Trotsky used it with regard to him and Marx

Internet tools increase our research ability by orders of magnitude. Google is superb and the perfect complement to it is: http://vivisimo.com/

Go to it.

roxx

And next week when I'm in the library I'll use it, but at work I only have access to BBC and Channel 4 sites

BCat. You're bloody lucky to get away with chatting on here from work - in any form. For myself, nobody would contemplate employing me. Not sure I'd blame them!

toxx

1 reason why I like working nights

Oh, I often get my parentheses muddled. (It's so cold I am having trouble typing. I am doing self-pity right now.)

I hate to denigrate the man the Animaniacs called I Tack Newt Weight (you'd have to be there , but I had heard that he was being sarcastic... Sad.

ACW. We're having a heatwave in most of the UK right now! 23.4 C in this room at present. London has been up to 31. Can't you get a pipeline from those hot springs set up?

toxx

It rained here overnight but it's still warm. Not as warm as it has been though.


Alji

You lucky people!!! (We have heard all our lives here in NZ that the UK is always cold and miserable. I am glad it is not so!)

Well to be honest it is mostly. Oh except for global warming maybe.