₦airaland Forum

I wonder why Plato and Aristotle and all those guru like Isaac Newton were not called professor or Dr. does it mean they are quack.

These were the people who discovered, invented and initiated what makes professors and doctors.

iamyemiakins:
These were the people who discovered, invented and initiated what makes professors and doctors.

Perfect response

Queenlovely:
I wonder why Plato and Aristotle and all those guru like Isaac Newton were not called professor or Dr. does it mean they are quack.

Most people at that time didn't really take them seriously,but after their demise,their genius was discovered. Great men are not really recognized as such until after centuries and millennia...
A prophet is not welcome in his own land

They are Geniuses....
And Pioneers
Way above professors

Queenlovely:
I wonder why Plato and Aristotle and all those guru like Isaac Newton were not called professor or Dr. does it mean they are quack.

OP, a very simple answer to your question:

In the days of Plato and Aristotle, there was absolutely no word/title like "professor". The title of professor only came to be used in the 14th century AD(that is in the 1300s). While the title of "doctor(Dr)" came into existence in the academic field around 13th century AD (1200s).

The likes of Plato and Aristotle lived long before these titles came into existence. These were learned men who lived between the 5th and 4th century BC.

So, you can see that they lived long before those titles(i.e. Professor and doctor came into existence).

You also have to take into consideration the fact that these men spoke a different language and lived in a different sort of civilization than the one that you and I now live in. They spoke a form of Greek(either Koine or Attic Greek) and the word for teacher was "didásko"-that's where we get the English words "didact/didactic".

Meanwhile, titles such as Professor and doctor have their very origins from Latin(none came from Greek). Remember, Latin was the instructional language of much of Europe during the Renaissance era. Doctor came from the Latin verb docēre meaning "to teach".



On the other hand, Newton was himself a Professor. He became a professor in 1669. He was a Lucasian professor of Maths at Cambridge.

This is just a rushed summary but I hope it helps you a bit.

Jedalord:
Most people at that time didn't really take them seriously,but after their demise,their genius was discovered. Great men are not really recognized as such until after centuries and millennia...
A prophet is not welcome in his own land

You say they weren't taken seriously but a man like Aristotle went on to instruct the son of King Philip II of Macedonia- no less a man than the legendary Alexander the Great.

Even Newton wasn't taken seriously too yet he was made a top professor at Cambridge and also went on to represent Cambridge university in the British parliament??

If you had said this about a certain Socrates, maybe I would have given you a point. But not these three men. They were respected icons in their days.

Saying they were not "taken seriously" in their days gives the impression that they were regarded as no more than buffoons by their contemporaries and that is entirely false.

nnamdiosu:
Perfect response

what makes the response perfect

nnamdiosu:
Perfect response

not exactly. it didn't answer the question

because philosophy is a very unstable field� Anybody can wake up tomorrow an invent a new philosophy.

We're they head of a university department

They were greater than professors.

mansakhalifa:
OP, a very simple answer to your question:

In the days of Plato and Aristotle, there was absolutely no word/title like "professor". The title of professor only came to be used in the 14th century AD(that is in the 1300s). While the title of "doctor(Dr)" came into existence in the academic field around 13th century AD (1200s).

The likes of Plato and Aristotle lived long before these titles came into existence. These were learned men who lived between the 5th and 4th century BC.

So, you can see that they lived long before those titles(i.e. Professor and doctor came into existence).

You also have to take into consideration the fact that these men spoke a different language and lived in a different sort of civilization than the one that you and I now live in. They spoke a form of Greek(either Koine or Attic Greek) and the word for teacher was "didásko"-that's where we get the English words "didact/didactic".

Meanwhile, titles such as Professor and doctor have their very origins from Latin(none came from Greek). Remember, Latin was the instructional language of much of Europe during the Renaissance era. Doctor came from the Latin verb docēre meaning "to teach".



On the other hand, Newton was himself a Professor. He became a professor in 1669. He was a Lucasian professor of Maths at Cambridge.

This is just a rushed summary but I hope it helps you a bit.

Thank you for enlightening our fellow!
I sometimes wonder why people should be asking questions like this, it seriously baffles me

mansakhalifa:
You say they weren't taken seriously but a man like Aristotle went on to instruct the son of King Philip II of Macedonia- no less a man than the legendary Alexander the Great.

Even Newton wasn't taken seriously too yet he was made a top professor at Cambridge and also went on to represent Cambridge university in the British parliament??

If you had said this about a certain Socrates, maybe I would have given you a point. But not these three men. They were respected icons in their days.

Saying they were not "taken seriously" in their days gives the impression that they were regarded as no more than buffoons by their contemporaries and that is entirely false.

you're just great my brother, even Archimedes lived in the palace and designed many equipments including war gadgets for his country!

sinkhole:
Thank you for enlightening our fellow!
I sometimes wonder why people should be asking questions like this, it seriously baffles me

Initially, I found the question really awkward...

Honestly.

But then you never know what could be going on in people's minds.

sinkhole:
you're just great my brother, even Archimedes lived in the palace and designed many equipments including war gadgets for his country!

Of course, these were great men of their time.

Saying that they were not rated or held in high esteem in their era is nothing but utter falsehood.