The roman playwright terence is often remembered for this line: "homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto." traditionally, it was translated as: "i am a man; i consider nothing that is human alien to me." more recently, some scholars have translated it as: "i am a human being; i consider nothing human alien to me." what was "wrong" with the older translation?

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Social Studies

Gwendolyn Diaz

15 January, 16:09

The roman playwright terence is often remembered for this line: "homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto." traditionally, it was translated as: "i am a man; i consider nothing that is human alien to me." more recently, some scholars have translated it as: "i am a human being; i consider nothing human alien to me." what was "wrong" with the older translation?

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Ryann Watkins · Answer 1

The older translation is wrong because i t assumed that the default category for all human experience is male.

In the past, only men were allowed to obtain education, so it's safe to assume that people who could read are almost certainly a male. Therefore, they rarely refers to the translation as a woman