Tom Colket wrote:
> 
> Diana wrote:
> Most achievements would have emerged in time -- even without
> Galileo
> we would not still think the sun revolved around the earth.
> Individuals as I say are overrated.
> 
> I couldn't disagree with this more.
> 
> The importance of the individual is probably most obvious in the arts.
> No "Ninth Symphony" without Beethoven. No "Prufrock" and "The Waste
> Land" (and this list) without Eliot.

This is sort of weird. The 'reason' hheliocentrism would have emerged in
time is that a Galileo woudl have emerged in time, so the question that
needs to be asked is what causes a Galileo to emerge.

And while there would not be a Waste Land without Eliot, Eliot wouldn't
have written that poem had there not been a World War and had he not had
an unhappy marraige.

You are debating a non-question, like the debate over nurture and
nature. 

Carrol