英国人的贡献

在欧洲，德国人自认为对哲学和音乐的贡献良多，法国人觉得自己在文学和艺术里功绩卓著，意大利人则为他们的罗马和文艺复兴而自豪。他们常常会想：英国人都贡献了什么呢？凭什么他们就成了两个世纪的主宰者了呢？

我觉得，英国人的贡献是容忍不同。

英国人十八世纪就没有了新闻管制，那个国家能够一比？

当然，英国人还贡献了牛顿。法国的伏尔泰曾说过：“世间谁最伟大，是凯撒、亚历山大，帖木尔还是克伦威尔? 都不是，而是牛顿。如果伟大的定义是用天赐的才能来启蒙自己和他人，那么牛顿当之无愧。王者只是破坏宇宙，而牛顿却是让我们了解世界。王者用武力使人民臣服，智者如牛顿用真理的力量博得我们的尊敬。”

英国人还贡献了达尔文。

不过，在西敏寺看到牛顿和达尔文的墓碑，回过来看还是自由，给有不同思想的人足够的尊重。没有那个国家，会让这些科学家与皇室，或者权势之人葬在一起。

[TNEGI//ETNI]

回复TNEGI//ETNI的评论:

The greatest englishman is not 牛顿 and 达尔文, 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 牛顿 and 达尔文, 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 "英国人的贡献":
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.