Apologies to Eugene, Chuck & the List

Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Fri, 08 Oct 1999 03:02:38 -0400

I've made an embarrassing misattribution and citation error in my original post:

To Michael Re: Making people passive NOT!

and now I have to add another post to clutter the List for the sake of the record and the courtesy of an apology which I owe you all.

[1] To Chuck Kuecker <ckuecker@mcs.net>: your trans-

of the Latin Phrase as given is entirely correct.

[2] To Eugene Leitl <eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>:

     your Latin translation of Hobbe's English statement is
     almost correct -- the actual Latin proverb (see below)
     is "Homo Homini Lupus" rather than the translation as
     "Homo hominis lupus".  But it is light-years ahead of
     my butchered version.


[3] To the List: I dislike needless posts as much as you
and if it wasn't for my error and its compounding, there would have been no need for all this.

What went wrong? First, the LATIN phrase "Homo Homini Lupus" must be attributed to Plautus (died 184 BC) in his "Asinaria". My follow-up research also discovered that, in fact, this was a popular Roman proverb simply transposed to "Asinaria" by Plautus.

Thomas Hobbes used "Man is a wolf to man", not in "Leviathan" as I believed but in "De cive, Epistola dedicatoria". Finally, the corruption of the Latin was accomplished entirely by myself, years ago, in taking notes in a classroom. I still use my University notes, believe it or not, and they have proven -- unlike this case -- to be a reliable reference.

I hope this error will not detract from the substance of my original post (above); I am willing to debate this issue if anyone feels as strongly about the converse position as I do my own.

Bob



Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA