U did not mention Einstein in your first post. And, Newtonian Physics a has been found to break down under certain conditions. See Einstein. But as I asked another poster, will your granddaughter be able to pick Newton out of a lineup, and tell three things that he did? Einstien, maybe. Newton, no. And, I failed to consider the effect of time, as another poster pointed out, so I have to addend the rules yet again. Think of your children, and the children they have you might live to see. Newton will not be on the list. Neither will Soros.
Aristotle has taken a beating in recent decades. The rest, ask your kids about. Or any neighbor on your street. Khan, would bear consideration, but who would he replace?
I would also disagree with Hitler's irrelevance. There are more than a few saying Hitler in the same breath as Obama.
RCG, I think you are beginning to lose sight of your original question. You were asking about the influence of individuals on the human race globally. Whether Newton was ultimately right or wrong in the light of contemporary physics is not really relevant. It is even less relevant that someone's granddaughter is able to pick Newton out of a lineup. You yourself mentioned Constantine, and by the lineup criterion, he would probably be eliminated also. You have modified the rules to take in account time, but that requires a speculation about the influence of contemporary people over a long period, and that is just, well, speculation. I think you are greatly underweighing Newton's influence. Leave aside Newton as physicist if you wish. Newton as mathematician alone puts him on the list. Einstein wouldn't have been able to begin without Newton's math, therefore, I would say that Newton's influence is greater than Einstein. (And I do know about Leibniz.)
The Library of Alexandria set the entire world into several renaissance periods of educational awakenings that we likely still feel some of the shockwaves. My eighth grade niece knows who Ophra is too ... but not Oppenheimer. Again ... influence of power in many cases isn't recognized but felt. If the criteria must be recognition and historical affect ... then those do not always equate with influential. Interesting topic nevertheless. I'm curious what others come up with "world changing" influential people.
Well, that's true. But the thing is, I didn't say Hitler was irrelevant. I said Hitler was, in my opinion, not as influential as other candidates.
I didn't mention Newton or Confucius in my first post either. Newtownian Physics breaks down under certain conditions? Really? I guess that means Newton hasn't been very influential then. OK then.