What is A Polymath
History & Modern Polymaths
What is a Polymath?
Greek: Poly - much, Manthanein - learn. Polymath is someone who has learned much. If you Google’d Polymath, you’d find a list of people, mostly ancient and mostly men. But that paints only part of the picture.
History:
People with many interests and skills in different expertise weren’t always called Polymaths, the term changed depending upon the time and accessibility of knowledge.
At first only the royalty had access to mentors, books, and quality education, these are the Philosopher Kings like Aristotle & Marcus Aurelius. When Gutenberg-also a polymath-developed the printing press in 1450, books and knowledge became accessible to everyone, usually men. The term Renaissance Man came into life. When the internet finally connected people in 1980s, slowly more information and education became accessible all over the world allowing for the Polymath to emerge.
The Term Polymath over the years
In the history book, you’d find mostly men as Polymaths, but the women were too and often stayed out of the limelight due to social pressure at the time. Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Hypatia, and more. A good reference book to cover the History of Polymaths: past and present is Waqas Ahmed’s book The Polymath.
Modern Polymaths:
Today’s polymaths are more common than you think.
Richard Branson
Maya Angelou
Yoky Matsuoka
Nina Tandon
Suntra Gupta,
Access to the internet and quality education is constantly improving and there is no better time to strive for Polymathy than now.