Standing on the shoulders of giants

The phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" is a metaphor which means "using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress".

[1] It is a metaphor of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: nani gigantum humeris insidentes) and expresses the meaning of "discovering truth by building on previous discoveries".

The earliest documented attestation of this aphorism appears in 1123 in William of Conches's Glosses on Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae.

He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.

[12] [The phrase] sums up the quality of the cathedral schools in the history of learning, and indeed characterizes the age which opened with Gerbert (950–1003) and Fulbert (960–1028) and closed in the first quarter of the 12th century with Peter Abelard.

The phrase also appears in the works of the Jewish tosaphist Isaiah di Trani (c. 1180 – c. 1250):[13] Should Joshua the son of Nun endorse a mistaken position, I would reject it out of hand, I do not hesitate to express my opinion, regarding such matters in accordance with the modicum of intelligence allotted to me.

Due to their wisdom we grow wise and are able to say all that we say, but not because we are greater than they.Isaac Newton remarked in a letter to his rival Robert Hooke written in 5 February 1675 and published in 1855: What Des-Cartes [sic] did was a good step.

Neither are we dwarfs, nor they giants, but we are all of one stature, save that we are lifted up somewhat higher by their means, provided that there be found in us the same studiousness, watchfulness and love of truth, as was in them.

If these conditions be lacking, then we are not dwarfs, nor set on the shoulders of giants, but men of a competent stature, grovelling on the earth.

C'est de là que nous pouvons découvrir des choses qu'il leur était impossible d'apercevoir.

[19]Later in the 17th century, George Herbert, in his Jacula Prudentum (1651), wrote "A dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two."

"Our elders, in higher life and study, had the appearance of the giant with the commanding body; We can, through ardor, equal them, if we scrutinize their teachings with good sense." (c. 1410) [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
An illustration of New Testament evangelists on the shoulders of Old Testament prophets, looking up at the Messiah (from the south rose window of Chartres Cathedral )
The quote is most often attributed to Sir Isaac Newton in a letter to his rival, Robert Hooke
Cedalion on Orion's shoulders in a 1658 painting by Nicolas Poussin