Who was the last man to know everything?
Who was the last man to know everything? I wanted to know for a rant I was writing this morning for my radio and tv shows. As I recall, it was a German philosopher, so I Googled to refresh my memory. I turned up this blog posted by Dennis Mangan and pass it along to you. I don't see that philospher's name in there. Was it Kant? Locke? I can't remember. I suppose it is a matter of opinion.
posted on a blog by Dennis Mangan
The Last Man To Know Everything Who was the Last Man To Know Everything? The first time I heard this expression was from a college physics professor, who nominated the English physicist, physician, and Egyptologist Thomas Young (1773-1829). Young made important contributions to the wave theory of light, described the structure of the eye, and helped to decipher the Rosetta Stone, among many other accomplishments. But it is clear that as astounding as Young's breadth of knowledge was, it was limited to broadly scientific subjects. What does it mean to know everything? The idea behind it assumes that at some point in history, human knowledge became so broad that no one person could hope to be an expert in more than a few areas. But when did this happen? In the thirteenth century someone like St. Thomas Aquinas could probably know most of what might be called "elite" knowledge, though plenty of "folk" knowledge, such as that of farming or artisanship or folk culture would have been unknown to him. To "know everything" would seem to exclude folk knowledge; there are just too many different cultures, even within the Western tradition, for anyone to have a good grasp of it. Geoffrey Parker, in his book Europe in Crisis, 1598-1648 writes: "It has been suggested that the last scholar to be acquainted with the whole body of knowledge current in the Europe of his day was Joseph Scaliger, a French luminary of Italian extraction who died in 1609. The scientific discoveries and the general cultural advance of the seventeenth century made it impossible for a single man to keep abreast of all learning after Scaliger's death. Few people tried." Scaliger (1540-1609) was a classical scholar, was learned in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and placed the study of calendars and dating on a scientific basis. Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) has also been suggested as a candidate for this post. Kircher was a German Jesuit priest, and an archaeologist, mathematician, biologist, physicist, vulcanologist, and Egyptologist. He was the first to posit the germ theory of disease and perfected the aeolian harp. See here. Here is a quick list of other men who have been suggested for the title of "last man who knew everything: Erasmus, Da Vinci, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Thorstein Veblen, Aristotle, Alvin Saunders Johnson (1874-1971, American social scientist), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, Karl Friedrich Gauss, Diderot, Thomas Jefferson, and William Whewell. Opinions on this topic differ so greatly that it is clear that the category cannot be very meaningful, but is more on the order of a parlor game. My nominee: Archimedes. Suggestions from readers are welcome.
posted by Dennis Mangan @ 7:31 AM
posted on a blog by Dennis Mangan
The Last Man To Know Everything Who was the Last Man To Know Everything? The first time I heard this expression was from a college physics professor, who nominated the English physicist, physician, and Egyptologist Thomas Young (1773-1829). Young made important contributions to the wave theory of light, described the structure of the eye, and helped to decipher the Rosetta Stone, among many other accomplishments. But it is clear that as astounding as Young's breadth of knowledge was, it was limited to broadly scientific subjects. What does it mean to know everything? The idea behind it assumes that at some point in history, human knowledge became so broad that no one person could hope to be an expert in more than a few areas. But when did this happen? In the thirteenth century someone like St. Thomas Aquinas could probably know most of what might be called "elite" knowledge, though plenty of "folk" knowledge, such as that of farming or artisanship or folk culture would have been unknown to him. To "know everything" would seem to exclude folk knowledge; there are just too many different cultures, even within the Western tradition, for anyone to have a good grasp of it. Geoffrey Parker, in his book Europe in Crisis, 1598-1648 writes: "It has been suggested that the last scholar to be acquainted with the whole body of knowledge current in the Europe of his day was Joseph Scaliger, a French luminary of Italian extraction who died in 1609. The scientific discoveries and the general cultural advance of the seventeenth century made it impossible for a single man to keep abreast of all learning after Scaliger's death. Few people tried." Scaliger (1540-1609) was a classical scholar, was learned in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and placed the study of calendars and dating on a scientific basis. Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) has also been suggested as a candidate for this post. Kircher was a German Jesuit priest, and an archaeologist, mathematician, biologist, physicist, vulcanologist, and Egyptologist. He was the first to posit the germ theory of disease and perfected the aeolian harp. See here. Here is a quick list of other men who have been suggested for the title of "last man who knew everything: Erasmus, Da Vinci, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Thorstein Veblen, Aristotle, Alvin Saunders Johnson (1874-1971, American social scientist), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, Karl Friedrich Gauss, Diderot, Thomas Jefferson, and William Whewell. Opinions on this topic differ so greatly that it is clear that the category cannot be very meaningful, but is more on the order of a parlor game. My nominee: Archimedes. Suggestions from readers are welcome.
posted by Dennis Mangan @ 7:31 AM
posted by The humble Farmer at 4:57 AM
1 Comments:
Thank you for your interesting blog post. I also just finished a similar post called: The last men who knew everything". http://proto-knowledge.blogspot.com/2010/11/last-man-who-knew-everything.html
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