Polymath
The word polymath derives from the Greek roots poly-, which means "much" or "many," and manthanein, which means "to learn." Plutarch wrote that the Ancient Greek muse Polyhymnia was sometimes known as Polymatheia, describing her as responsible for "that faculty of the soul which inclines to attain and keep knowledge."
In Western Europe, the first work to use the term polymathy in its title, A Treatise on Polymathy: The Complete Work on the Studies of the Ancients, was published in 1603 by Johann von Wowern, a Hamburg philosopher. Von Wowern defined polymathy as "knowledge of various matters, drawn from all kinds of studies... ranging freely through all the fields of the disciplines, as far as the human mind, with unwearied industry, is able to pursue them".
The earliest recorded use of the term in the English language is from 1624, in the second edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. The form polymathist is slightly older, first appearing in the Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes of Richard Montagu in 1621. Use in English of the similar term polyhistor dates from the late 16th century.
Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This is expressed in the term Renaissance man, often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectually, artistically, socially, physically, and spiritually.
Leonardo da Vinci has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." Many notable polymaths lived during the Renaissance period, a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through to the 17th century that began in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of Europe.
A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play a musical instrument, write poetry, and so on; thus fulfilling the Renaissance ideal. The idea of a universal education was essential to achieving polymath ability, hence the word university was used to describe a seat of learning. However, the original Latin word refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc".
Robert Root-Bernstein is considered the principal responsible for rekindling interest in polymathy in the scientific community. His works emphasize the contrast between the polymath and two other types: the specialist and the dilettante. The specialist demonstrates depth but lacks breadth of knowledge. The dilettante demonstrates superficial breadth but tends to acquire skills merely "for their own sake without regard to understanding the broader applications or implications and without integrating it".
Conversely, the polymath is a person with a level of expertise that is able to "put a significant amount of time and effort into their avocations and find ways to use their multiple interests to inform their vocations." A key point in the work of Root-Bernstein and colleagues is the argument in favor of the universality of the creative process. That is, although creative products, such as a painting, a mathematical model or a poem, can be domain-specific, at the level of the creative process, the mental tools that lead to the generation of creative ideas are the same, be it in the arts or science.
Peter Burke, Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College at Cambridge, discussed the theme of polymathy in some of his works. He has presented a comprehensive historical overview of the ascension and decline of the polymath as, what he calls, an "intellectual species." He observes that in ancient and medieval times, scholars did not have to specialize. However, from the 17th century on, the rapid rise of new knowledge in the Western world, both from the systematic investigation of the natural world and from the flow of information coming from other parts of the world, was making it increasingly difficult for individual scholars to master as many disciplines as before.
In Life Stages of Creativity, Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein suggest six typologies of creative life stages. These typologies are based on real creative production records first published by Root-Bernstein, Bernstein, and Garnier (1993). Type 1 represents people who specialize in developing one major talent early in life (e.g., prodigies) and successfully exploit that talent exclusively for the rest of their lives.
Type 2 individuals explore a range of different creative activities (e.g., through worldplay or a variety of hobbies) and then settle on exploiting one of these for the rest of their lives. Type 3 people are polymathic from the outset and manage to juggle multiple careers simultaneously so that their creativity pattern is constantly varied.
James C. Kaufman, from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, and Ronald A. Beghetto, from the same university, investigated the possibility that everyone could have the potential for polymathy as well as the issue of the domain-generality or domain-specificity of creativity. Based on their earlier four-c model of creativity, they proposed a typology of polymathy, ranging from the ubiquitous mini-c polymathy to the eminent but rare Big-C polymathy.
Polymaths include the scholars and thinkers of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, who excelled at several fields in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the arts. In the Italian Renaissance, the idea of the polymath was allegedly expressed by Leon Battista Alberti (1404, 1472), a polymath himself, in the statement that "a man can do all things if he will".
Well-known polymaths include Archimedes , Ancient Greek mathematician and physicist (c. 287, 212 BC) and Aristotle , Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist (384, 322 BC). Eratosthenes , Ancient Greek mathematician and geographer (276, 195 BC) and Hypatia , Alexandrian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician (c. 350/370 , 415) also appear in historical records.
Benjamin Franklin is one of the foremost polymaths in US history. Franklin was a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer and political philosopher. He further attained a legacy as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Other notable figures include Leonardo da Vinci , Italian polymath (1452, 1519) and Nicolaus Copernicus , Polish canon, mathematician, astronomer, physician, and economist (1473, 1543).
Bharath Sriraman, of the University of Montana, also investigated the role of polymathy in education. He poses that an ideal education should nurture talent in the classroom and enable individuals to pursue multiple fields of research and appreciate both the aesthetic and structural/scientific connections between mathematics, arts and the sciences.
In 2009, Sriraman published a paper reporting a 3-year study with 120 pre-service mathematics teachers and derived several implications for mathematics pre-service education as well as interdisciplinary education. They found that those more engaged in solving the paradox also displayed more polymathic thinking traits. He concludes by suggesting that fostering polymathy in the classroom may help students change beliefs, discover structures and open new avenues for interdisciplinary pedagogy.
Waqas Ahmed defines polymaths as those who have made significant contributions to at least three different fields. Rather than seeing polymaths as exceptionally gifted, he argues that every human being has the potential to become one: that people naturally have multiple interests and talents. He contrasts this polymathic nature against what he calls "the cult of specialisation". For example, education systems stifle this nature by forcing learners to specialise in narrow topics.
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Common questions
What is the origin of the word polymath?
The word polymath derives from the Greek roots poly-, which means much or many, and manthanein, which means to learn. Plutarch wrote that the Ancient Greek muse Polyhymnia was sometimes known as Polymatheia.
When was the term polymathy first used in English?
The earliest recorded use of the term in the English language is from 1624, in the second edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. The form polymathist appeared slightly earlier in 1621 in the Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes of Richard Montagu.
Who are some famous historical polymaths mentioned in the text?
Well-known polymaths include Archimedes who lived from approximately 287 BC to 212 BC, Aristotle who lived from 384 BC to 322 BC, Leonardo da Vinci who lived from 1452 to 1519, and Benjamin Franklin. Other notable figures include Eratosthenes, Hypatia, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Leon Battista Alberti.
How does Robert Root-Bernstein define a polymath compared to specialists?
Robert Root-Bernstein defines a polymath as a person with expertise able to put significant time and effort into their avocations to inform their vocations. He contrasts this with specialists who demonstrate depth but lack breadth of knowledge and dilettantes who demonstrate superficial breadth without integrating skills.
What is Waqas Ahmed's definition of a polymath?
Waqas Ahmed defines polymaths as those who have made significant contributions to at least three different fields. He argues that every human being has the potential to become one rather than seeing them as exceptionally gifted.