Peter Burke defines a polymath as “someone who is interested in and learning about many subjects.” Burke also invokes Isaiah Berlin’s famous remark about scholars that he called “foxes” who know “many things” and “hedgehogs” who know “one important thing.” Essentially, this is a book about people who are good at many things (think Sherlock Holmes and Elon Musk) rather than those who specialize and concentrate on one area (think Einstein and Dr. Fauci).
Burke generates a list of 500 polymaths from history. He discusses how culture can encourage the development of polymaths. And Burke shows that polymaths, like Leibniz and Francis Bacon, impact their countries with their far-reaching discoveries.
When I was a college professor, I had the choice of concentrating on a single area of Business (like teaching multiple sections of ACCOUNTING like some of my colleagues did) or teach a variety of courses (MARKETING, MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, etc.). I chose variety so perhaps there’s a little polymath in me. Are you a polymath? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
List of Plates viii
Preface and Acknowledgements x
Introduction: What is a Polymath? – 1
1 East and West – 10
2 The Age of the ‘Renaissance Man’, 1400-1600 – 26
3 The Age of ‘Monsters of Erudition’, 1600-1700 – 47
4 The Age of the ‘Man of Letters’, 1700-1850 – 83
5 The Age of Territoriality, 1850-2000 – 127
6 A Group Portrait – 170
7 Habitats – 191
8 The Age of Interdisciplinarity – 213
Coda: Towards a Third Crisis – 240
Appendix: 500 Western Polymaths – 247
Notes – 278
Further Reading – 316
Index – 318