Originally Posted by
David Jamieson
I have to disagree here again. Mostly the foundations are documentation and extant proof that is corroborative.
We don't accept accounts of the ancient past readily and the history around that changes all the time. It is a living history after all. For instance the Rossetta stone utterly changed how scholars viewed the ancient Egyptian world. the records of kings pharaohs and so in is not exactly clear until the Ptolemy dynasty ending in Cleopatra. This is recorded not only in Egypt, but in Greece and elsewhere as shown by many artifacts that have shown these people to have existed , lived, loved and laboured in those times.
As for the seven arts and sciences, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. These are tools to finding truth that overshadows whatever someone wants to say and we use them regularly to explain the world around us in terms that are very real an universal.
Ultimately, with people, we lose sight of the lesson in favour of celebrating the person who gave it. In my opinion, this is an error as the teachings are universally more important than the teacher. the teacher can be noted, and is throughout history but I think this nod that I mention about the lesson being the value is what causes people to attribute the lesson to a fictitious character.
For instance, Socrates. It doesn't matter if he existed or not, what matters is that the many of lessons he is attributed with putting forth are universal truths in context with humanity and not just in his day.
The same is true of other people and figures in time. Isaac Newton as a person has no relevance for me. I never knew him of course, but I benefit from the universal truth he bestowed upon us all. (Also there is well documented and corroborative evidence of his physical existence, but that is not relevant case in point).
Many of us don't accept that "America won WW2" because we know that it was actually the Soviets who beat Hitler. It wasn't Britain, though they certainly helped, as did all the Allies, but the real work and highest losses to achieve it came from the Soviets.
We know for a fact that Hitler didn't kill him self in that bunker because the body the Russians had that was allegedly his from that day with the bullet hole intact was in fact a woman. Historically, we pretend "we got him" but actual truth is unknown. So in that sense I understand what you are saying about people accepting what amounts to untruths as history. It's easier to move on if you fill the void where information is lacking seems to be the trend.