Professor Peter Burke Congratulations. Thank you for the obvious efforts of providing all, with insight into polymaths. My experience in attempting to contribute to the resolution of complex issues. While you mentioned the lack of female polymaths it would be interesting to discover what we have missed out from such development. My research on decision making at the apex of Governments has encouraged the idea that we all suffer from a lack of diversity of perspectives notably of polymaths especially women polymaths. A. Edward Aust
The main difficulty in defining a polymath today is that modern academia tends to increasingly specialise fields. 📚 You no longer study just physics; you delve into specific areas such as electromechanics or thermodynamics, and within electromechanics, you might focus on Power Electronics, Automation Engineering, Robotics, etc. 🤖 This makes it easy to see someone like Elon Musk as a polymath because he invests in and leads projects across diverse fields: Aerospace Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, and Energy Systems Engineering. 🌌 However, Musk does not conduct research or investigate in these fields himself; he manages projects, leads teams, and invests in them. We could say he is an expert in Applied Interdisciplinary Engineering and Technology Management. 💼 You wouldn't want Elon Musk as your mentor to develop a robot, but as your investor. Managers and investors are multidisciplinary by definition, but they do not typically delve deeply into the topics or build the technologies themselves. This is quite different from the Renaissance man. 🧠
Potential young-ish Polymath candidate: Nathan Myhrvold. Although he is not an academic, I think he done work original contribution ranging from CS, Archeology, and food science
I’ve always being interested in many subjects from being young, I never did know there was a word for that, life itself is the best class room, with a hands on approach and aptitude nothing is impossible, is that a classification of a polymath would you say? I’ve met and spoken to professors from Cambridge University, in psychology, I learned that on the streets, my views on that matter was correct, from what they told me, I enjoyed the several conversations we had too, was enlightening for us all 👍
My friend they, as long as there are humans, can't disappear 😀 What happens is that they are know "invisible" to academia. Also today anyone with a "kindle" reader can get for almost nothing "The Harvard Classics" 70 books of diverse content, to enjoy, plus many, many more books, a situation that would have any scholar of the past rich beyond his wildest dreams! Cheers.
I happen to side towards major disagreement with you. through various means, there has always been access to books or “material” to atleast a certain strata of society. an access to it doesn’t make one polymath, even good will hunting-esque knowledge about stuff. Polymath, usually, arise from University as an institution and then, get affirmed by it. if the 700 books kindle reader hadn’t contributed to various disciplines in an affirmed academic settings, I’d be wary to call them a polymath.
Even today there's a moving more to cross disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisplinary, holistic approach which well suited polymaths of today. Eg. Health, climate change, etc... where a specialization is insufficient to deal with.
I disagree that the concept of Polymaths should be as a strict definition only reserved for academics - in fact, I strongly disagree, especially considering the current climate of academia
It is also very doubtful what an academics would be today, since there are very arbitrary disciplines taught at university (even rather practical ones such as didactics, etc.) while others are excluded even if they are highly cognitive.
I think you are being too narrow-minded in your definition. There are probably just as many polymaths now as any time. I think most have just dropped out of traditional academic forms of employment. I myself have around 175 credit hours of traditional college yet took a union truck driving job because at heart im an anarchist economically. Fyi 9 credit hours shy of an economics degree. I have continuously expanded my education along with trade skills. I just dont like the system that this world is built upon, and i suspect other folks who are generally curious about learning think and feel similarly.
Looking at female profiles, perhaps Latinas, Africans, or Asian women, would help to find more polymaths, too. This narrow focus on white man is blinding us.
