Now that we have finally defined the polymath, we can start
doing some other things. We can start looking at the Real Polymaths, and we can
also figure out what a Renaissance man (person) is and what a universal man is.
Are they any different from a polymath?
We’ll get into those soon enough, but, for today, a real
polymath.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, polymath!
Wittgenstein, really? Wasn’t he a philosopher? Yes, but, believe
it or not, he studied engineering before turning to philosophy. He went to a
technical institute in Berlin and studied aeronautical engineering at the
University of Manchester in England back in the earliest days of flight. He
even received a patent for a jet-tipped propeller blade (not quite a jet
engine, but close) in 1911 before giving up mathematics and engineering for philosophy.
While his arguments in his classic (and close to
incomprehensible to most lay people) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus are figuratively in the clouds, his propeller design
might actually have gotten him there.
Aeronautical engineering and philosophy are about as far
away as two fields of study can possibly get from each other. For his feats in
each, Wittgenstein has to be considered a polymath.
More tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment