Editing Polymath (section)

=== Peter Burke ===
[[Peter Burke (historian)|Peter Burke]], Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College at Cambridge, discussed the theme of polymathy in some of his works. He has presented a comprehensive historical overview of the ascension and decline of the polymath as, what he calls, an "intellectual species".<ref>Burke, P. (2012). ''A social history of knowledge II: From the encyclopaedia to Wikipedia'' (Vol. 2). Polity.</ref><ref>Burke, P. (2010). The polymath: A cultural and social history of an intellectual species. ''Explorations in cultural history: Essays for Peter McCaffery'', 67–79.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Peter |title=The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag |date=2020 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300252088 |pages=352 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tL5DwAAQBAJ |access-date=16 November 2020 |archive-date=13 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913075530/https://books.google.com/books?id=3tL5DwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He observes that in ancient and medieval times, scholars did not have to specialize. However, from the 17th century on, the rapid rise of new knowledge in the Western world—both from the systematic investigation of the natural world and from the flow of information coming from other parts of the world—was making it increasingly difficult for individual scholars to master as many disciplines as before. Thus, an intellectual retreat of the polymath species occurred: "from knowledge in every [academic] field to knowledge in several fields, and from making original contributions in many fields to a more passive consumption of what has been contributed by others".<ref>Burke, 2010</ref>{{rp|72}}

Given this change in the intellectual climate, it has since then been more common to find "passive polymaths", who consume knowledge in various domains but make their reputation in one single discipline, than "proper polymaths", who—through a feat of "intellectual heroism"—manage to make serious contributions to several disciplines. However, Burke warns that in the age of specialization, polymathic people are more necessary than ever, both for synthesis—to paint the big picture—and for analysis. He says: "It takes a polymath to 'mind the gap' and draw attention to the knowledges that may otherwise disappear into the spaces between disciplines, as they are currently defined and organized".<ref>Burke, 2012</ref>{{rp|183}}