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Did the ancient Greeks have factcheckers ? I always wondered how they debated without “fact-checking” and muzzling the crap out of other side, yet produce wisdom that stood test of time

> Boyer 1991, p. 119 notes, "The Elements of Euclid not only was the earliest major Greek mathematical work to come down to us, but also the most influential textbook of all times. [...]The first printed versions of the Elements appeared at Venice in 1482, one of the very earliest of mathematical books to be set in type; it has been estimated that since then at least a thousand editions have been published. Perhaps no book other than the Bible can boast so many editions, and certainly no mathematical work has had an influence comparable with that of Euclid's Elements".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid's_Elements#cite_note-...




> yet produce wisdom that stood test of time

Most of it is survivor bias. I'm sure they claimed plenty of stupid things too, those just didn't pass though over two thousand year filter.




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