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Well there's no way to know whether either of these things can be attributed to any one "man", but I'd like to suggest that the creation of language and of philosophy were the most influential "acts" in, or prior to, history.
Language can certainly not be attributed to one person, and even if the idea of language could be credited to a single "man" it's completion (for lack of a better term) must certainly be spread over a number of minds and over a number of years. I'm talking about spoken language, by the way, because in my opinion after spoken language, written language was an obvious eventuality. Language opened all sorts of doors for mankind. After all, what good is a brilliant idea if there's no way to communicate it? Which brings me to philosophy:
Now when I say philosophy, I don't mean anything nearly so complex or encompassing as Socratic or Platonic or Aristotilian philosophy. They were all great and significant thinkers, but I'm referring to the most rudimentary form of philosophy: simply asking "Why?". Why the sun rose and set, why the stars came out at night, why we were alive at all; questions that had never been asked before, questions that changed the way man lived. Again, I'm not saying that the first philosopher was necessarily one man, but it was these questions that led to the distinction between man and animal. It was these questions that led to morality and religion and laws and the formation of civilisation as we know it today.
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Muthtard?! Don't let'th be thilly. Lemon, now that'th different...
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