Since I was about 9 years old, Rome has consistently stood as one of my favorite ancient civilizations. Oh, who am I kidding, it is my favorite; I’m acting like one of those guys who watches Star Wars and Star Trek all the time but claims not be into it. My library cannot lie: I love me some Rome.

The Romans were a very interesting bunch of people. As a group, they (obviously) did a lot wrong, but they also got a lot right. In particular, I love their practicality, their relative egalitarianism (by ancient standards), with an expansive definition of group membership that influences us to this day, to say nothing of the social mobility that characterized their society. So, in a word, meritocracy ¹, is one of the things really I love about the ancient Romans. Too bad they never figured out the succession-of-power thing. That would have been good for them (and no doubt the rest of the world — the Christian Dark Ages were not good for human progress). Also, the lead pipes thing. In a way, it’s a testament to their awesomeness that even in their errors, they have much to teach us. Right or wrong, Rome is full of ressons.

Sorry, lessons 😀 .

So, as an out-of-the-closet Romanophile (is that word? we’re making it one), you can imagine my delight when, while doing some immersion multiplexing, I came across this talk by an ancient historian named Richard Carrier, entitled “What Did the Romans Do For Us, Part 2”.

The money shot is when he talks about the three core scientific values that the Greco-Roman scientific worldview bequeathed to posterity:

1. Curiosity is a moral good
2. Empiricism is the primary mode of discovery — evidence trumps authority; it doesn’t matter what your rank is or whatever; evidence ends any argument.
3. Progress is both possible and valuable — you can learn more

[Richard Carrier – What did the Romans Do For US – Part 2 – YouTube]

And I really cannot think of three better values for a language get-used-to-er (because you don’t learn a language, you get used to it) than these. Frankly, they’re way better than the three laws of language acquisition. Hey, I’m egotistical, but I know a good idea when I see one! 😉

How can we make these three principles work for us? Easy:

1. Curiosity is a moral good. Wanting to know more words is awesome. Get out there and learn what the words mean! Dictionary the fuzz out of them! Find out what they’re about. You’re not a loser for not knowing your language yet. You’re awesome for wanting to know more.
2. Empiricism is the primary mode of discovery — evidence trumps any and all authorities: so give school and forums and even me the middle finger. Forge your own path! Find the evidence for a funner, faster way. Better yet, BECOME the evidence yourself!
3. Progress is both possible and valuable: you can learn Japanese. You will learn Japanese. You will become native-like. You are Japanese. The language belongs to you. It is doable. It is possible. Improvement is a physical reality. If in doubt, go back to principle #1.

Too often in modern life, we see science wielded as a tool to shut down possibility. But that’s literally not what’s it’s for; science — knowledge — is meant for opening horizons, for creating new possibility, not shutting it down (science only shuts down bad possibilities in order to open good ones, not merely for the sake of being snarky). Sorry, bub, but some quote about poorly compiled statistics, further garbled and misunderstood by some journalist writing a clickbaity headline, is not the end of this or any discussion.

Be curious. Be experimental. Be kaizen!