Hello

Hello all. Welcome to a discussion on polymaths and polymathy. These are words that we have seen a fair amount recently. But what is a polymath? And what is polymathy? The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that a polymath is a person of great or varied learning; a person acquainted with many fields of study; or an accomplished scholar. And polymathy is, naturally, great or varied learning; acquaintance with many branches of knowledge.

But how much learning or knowledge is polymathic learning or knowledge? How many branches of knowledge do you have to be acquainted with to have polymathic knowledge? These are questions that I will address in upcoming posts.

I will discuss what people thought of polymaths and polymathy throughout the years. Is great knowledge a good thing, a bad thing, or it depends? What did people think about great knowledge in the past?

And, perhaps far more interestingly, we will start looking at actual polymaths. Regardless of what the precise definition of polymath is, surely we can all name a few right off the top of our heads. Leonardo da Vinci is one. Aristotle is another. Those were easy. But what about Isaac Asimov? His day job was originally professor of biochemistry, but he became far more renowned for his 500 plus books on mathematics, astronomy, the earth sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, physics, biology, history, the Bible, and general science, just to name some of the subjects that he wrote about. And of course he was also one of the greatest science authors ever. Would you say that he was a polymath? That sounds pretty polymathic to me.

In the coming months, we’ll look at many other amazing polymaths. How about a leading cardiologist who was also a classical composer? Or a musicologist who was also a physicist. Or a lawyer and judge who was also one of the leading specialists on Indian history and philology. Or another lawyer who was a renowned specialist on ecclesiastical law as well as an important mathematician. And we shouldn’t forget a man who specialized in botany, medicine, and mineralogy!

These are just some of the many men and women with startlingly broad academic and intellectual feats who will be presented here. Stay tuned!