"The wisdom of the ancients is timeless."
Everyone says this and I don't believe it. Wise people existed then and wise people exist now. The new wise people's wisdom is much more relevant.
Everyone says this and I don't believe it. Wise people existed then and wise people exist now. The new wise people's wisdom is much more relevant.
Sure, but which ones?
The reason we study people from 2,000 years ago is not that no one else is having those same thoughts (or better ones) today. It's because if something survives for 2,000 years, there's a reason for it. Enough cultures over centuries felt that what these people had to say was important enough to be passed down. It's the same reason we don't seriously study philosophers until they are dead. It takes decades to determine if their corpus is even a meaningful contribution to the canon.
Without discussing politics or political topics (e.g. the benefits of diversity in a group of people,) can you give examples of this 'much more relevant' wisdom of today? For example, Aristotle taught metaphysics and aspirational ethics, amongst other topics--can you give examples of today's 'much more relevant' wisdoms that are more relevant than what he had to say? Examples that leave no question as to how much more relevant or, perhaps, more wise those (new vs old) wisdoms are? Thanks.