In the time of Plato, only the most educated could read and write. So if you could do both, I think your odds of being remembered had almost as much to do with writing good quality as it did with being lucky enough for your writing to survive centuries.
That’s such a good point I’ve never really thought about. 🤔 Actually kind of a trip to try and imagine a world where simply knowing how to read written text was akin to sorcery.
And this wasn’t just the case in Plato’s time, this was the case until very very recently (last century). In 1900, global literacy rate was around 20%.
In the time of Plato, only the most educated could read and write. So if you could do both, I think your odds of being remembered had almost as much to do with writing good quality as it did with being lucky enough for your writing to survive centuries.
As for us…it will happen but only very rarely.
That’s such a good point I’ve never really thought about. 🤔 Actually kind of a trip to try and imagine a world where simply knowing how to read written text was akin to sorcery.
Hey, that makes you a sorcerer, just in the wrong century.
And this wasn’t just the case in Plato’s time, this was the case until very very recently (last century). In 1900, global literacy rate was around 20%.
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what’s it that you disagree with?
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i know, but what specifically in that comment?
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but we know that too few people used to be literate. I couldn’t understand the need to disagree with this, i thought i misunderstood what you wrote.
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can you give some sources?
There was oral history too though.