Polymath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Leonardo da Vinci is thought of as one of the cleverest people who ever lived.

A polymath (from the Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής which means "having learned much")[1][2] is a person who is very clever at many different things. A polymath studies many different kinds of knowledge.[3] A polymath might be very good at language and mathematics and science and art and music, all at the same time. Not every polymath is interested in the same things, but they are all interested in a wide range of subjects. Other names for a polymath are "universal genius" and "Renaissance man".[4][5]

The term "Renaissance man" comes from the Renaissance period of European history, during the 1400s and 1500s. But polymaths have been known since ancient times.

[change] List of polymaths

  • Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher who studied and wrote about many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology.
  • Roger Bacon, O.F.M. (c. 1214–1294), also known as Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: "wonderful teacher"), was an English Franciscan friar who was a philosopher, theologian and scientist. He was one of the first people to perform scientific experiments in a modern manner.
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, musician, philosopher and humanist.[10][11][12][13] [14]
  • Michelangelo (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564) was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, engineer and theologian (student of the Bible).
  • Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was an Italian scientist, mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher.
  • Johann von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, poet, critic, playwright, and novelist.
  • Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, theologian, natural philosopher and alchemist.
  • Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) was a German philosopher, theologian, physicist, mathematician, historian, librarian and inventor.
  • Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) was a Russian poet, educator, artist, physicist and chemist education.
  • Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). American president who was a horticulturist, architect, archaeologist, inventor, and founder of a university.
  • Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali poet, artist, playwright, novelist, educationist, social reformer, nationalist, business-manager and composer.
  • Sir Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English prime minister, military leader, historian, novelist, painter and sportsman.

[change] References and notes

  1. ↑ the term was first recorded in written English in the early seventeenth century Harper, Daniel (2001). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 5 December 2006.
  2. ↑ http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/polymath
  3. ↑ Oxford concise dictionary
  4. ↑ Encarta dictionary
  5. ↑ Cambridge dictionary
  6. ↑ Richard Covington, "Rediscovering Arabic Science", Saudi Aramco World, May/June 2007.
  7. ↑ Charles F. Horne (1917), ed., The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia, pages 90–91. Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, New York. (cf. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (973–1037): On Medicine, c. 1020 CE, Medieval Sourcebook.)
  8. ↑ Top 100 Events of the Millennium, Life magazine.
  9. ↑ Caroline Stone, "Doctor, Philosopher, Renaissance Man", Saudi Aramco World, May-June 2003, p. 8–15.
  10. ↑ Johnston, Robert K.; J Walker Smith (2003). Life Is Not Work, Work Is Not Life: Simple Reminders for Finding Balance in a 24-7 World. Council Oak Books. ISBN.  "...the prodigious polymath of the Italian Renaissance. Painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, humanist."p. 1
  11. ↑ Elmer, Peter; Nicholas Webb, Roberta Wood (2000). The Renaissance in Europe: An Anthology. Yale University Press. ISBN.  "The following selection... shows why this famous Renaissance polymath considered painting to be a science..."
  12. ↑ p. 180
  13. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415210895&id=_ULK9UDTpnEC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=Leonardo+da+Vinci+%22universal+genius%22&sig=lJa69sRSsuAEjP294SaGb1oNAG8
  14. ↑ Johnston, Robert K.; J Walker Smith (2003). Life Is Not Work, Work Is Not Life: Simple Reminders for Finding Balance in a 24-7 World. Council Oak Books. ISBN.  p. 1

[change] Further reading

  • Polymath: A Renaissance Man
  • "History", "Mathematics", "Polymath" and "Polyhistor" in one or more of: Chamber's Dictionary of Etymology, The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories, The Cassell Dictionary of Word Histories
Retrieved from "http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath"