I have been thinking William of Occam is possibly the most influential human in history
his influence in bringing freedom of thought created modern scientific industrial western civilisation and industrialised the whole planet ( edited to remove westernised the whole planet. )
Ohh that's an interesting thought. I don't know an awful lot about William of Occam but he definitely was the precursor to a lot of that reductionist thinking...
Logic and reality testing rules. Religion was relegated to spiritual and moral matters. Divine right fell down. The whole structure of society fell down. No longer did we have to say black was white just because the boss said so because the boss no longer had rights given to him by religion
I mean....Mohammed? any of the religious figures? the people who "decoded" the Rosetta stone? whoever came up with the wheel? writing? Alexander Fleming? Babbage? many a4guments to be made