on the shoulders of giants
on the SHOHL-durz uv JY-ants
ɒn ðə ˈʃoʊldərz əv ˈdʒaɪəntsListen
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Dictionary meaning
building upon and extending the accumulated knowledge and discoveries of previous thinkers and researchers; acknowledging that individual achievements are possible only because of the foundation laid by those who came before; the phrase is associated with Isaac Newton, who wrote to Robert Hooke in 1675 that if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants; it expresses intellectual humility, recognising that even the most original thinker depends on a vast inheritance of prior discovery, method, and conceptual framework
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