“The male has more teeth than the female in mankind, and sheep and goats, and swine. This has not been observed in other animals. Those persons which have the greatest number of teeth are the longest lived; those which have them widely separated, smaller, and more scattered, are generally more short lived.”
Who on earth could have said something so silly as this?
One of the greatest minds who ever lived – that’s who. Aristotle was a philosopher in ancient Greece, around 350 B.C. His contributions to human knowledge are almost unparalleled in history. He wrote on subjects from philosophy, to linguistics, to economics, to politics, to psychology, to the arts, to ethics, and more. His influence on science was enormous—and in particular his recognition that we can acquire knowledge of the world by observing nature and drawing conclusions about it using our reasoning (this is the precursor to Bacon’s modern scientific method, which we talked about yesterday).
So how could a genius like Aristotle believe that men have more teeth than women, and therefore live longer?
Bertrand Russell has a pretty good answer:
“[A]lthough he was twice married, it never occurred to [Aristotle] to verify this statement by examining his wives’ mouths.”
Even the most brilliant people make foolish claims—especially when they don’t bother to check whether they’re actually true. In science—and in every subject—no matter how smart you are, you still must do the work. Otherwise, you’ll end up believing just about anything.
Have wonderful day.