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>Hammurabi is best known for having issued the Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator.

I don't think Wikipedia gets to the point quickly enough for this context to be relevant.

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shiroiushi 6 days ago | parent [-]

That's a valid point, but I was just responding to someone who claimed that Hammurabi was so obscure that (in their minds) no one had heard of him, and additionally complained that there was no Wikipedia link. I feel like I should have used LMGTFY.

Whether the OP was making a poorly-articulated point by merely bringing up Hammurabi and expecting the reader to know about his history with building codes, I think, is a separate issue. Anyone with a basic education should have heard of Hammurabi, though they may have forgotten the specifics about him. And finding a Wikipedia link on your own is trivial.

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tharkun__ 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

I did not claim that he was obscure nor that no one had heard of him.

I merely mentioned that your and other claims that "anyone with a high school education has to have heard of him" is bollocks.

I have both a high school and university degree and have never heard of him and don't think I need to have.

Now you even claim someone with a "basic education" should've heard of him (meaning someone that didn't even finish high school). If you doubt that, Google about different countries' school systems and what would go for "basic" education.

That said you definitely would've nerd sniped me with a link and if these replies here on HN hadn't been there to catch my interest first I would have just googled him.

Basically by trying to be a smart ass and belittling others you harmed your own cause so to speak.

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thaumasiotes 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

> I merely mentioned that your and other claims that "anyone with a high school education has to have heard of him" is bollocks.

> I have both a high school and university degree and have never heard of him

With all due respect, it's far more likely that you have heard of him, but you didn't retain the information.

	▲	tharkun__ 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		As I mentioned in a sibling thread, you are, with all due respect, assuming very specific, potentially very local schooling. I can't say where you grew up and at what time and what the curriculum would always contain. However, whatever your schooling included, after reading through the entirety of the Wikipedia article I can say with absolute certainty that none of it rang any bells and it very much was not part of my schooling and I did not happen to come across it afterwards by accident such as through this article. Like also hinted at in that sibling thread, there are other quite local historic figures I could cite which I know for a fact are locally well known but not otherwise. All through talking to colleagues and friends from other countries (or even just parts within a single country). What really got me both in your and their replies is this absolutist certainty. The world is so full of differences and yet somehow some people feel the need to express things like you do here in such absolute terms and no other realities seem to be possible to exist.

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shiroiushi 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>I have both a high school and university degree and have never heard of him

I question the value of your education.

Have you also never heard of Shakespeare or Bach?

	▲	tharkun__ 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		Very much have. Don't care much for one, do care for some of the other. The belittling continues I see. Have you heard of Terry Fox? Anyone with an elementary school education surely has.

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InitialLastName 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I am going to guess (based on vocabulary evidence) that the person you responded to is British. You should be aware that the UK education system does not work like the US system (where you get general education including history before going into a subject-focused college degree program at 18). You're more likely to start the subject-focused program at ~16 (and possibly be aiming your focus in that direction earlier than that), which means the general studies curriculum has to be constricted.