tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post2772331383808477606..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Which 20th century thinker would have been a 17th century polymath?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16976237712563156942009-10-29T12:05:03.688-07:002009-10-29T12:05:03.688-07:00http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/edward-...http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/edward-carr/last-days-polymath<br /><br />Interesting article: LAST DAYS OF THE POLYMATH.Middletown Girlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81331913278795765942009-10-21T06:55:16.652-07:002009-10-21T06:55:16.652-07:00Julian said
> It is surprisingly hard [today] ...Julian said<br /><br />> It is surprisingly hard [today] to find even an Arts polymath - that is, someone who was very good in visual arts and in writing. <<br /><br />More than a few people successfully write, direct, draw, and act. Among these, Orson Welles was very good at them all.<br /><br />> I have noticed a tendency for some really strange combinations of fields to start bearing fruit of late: zoology and geomorphology = zoogeomorphology; Evolutionary theory and literature = Darwinian literary studies[....] <<br /><br />This is a heartening trend. The mind is still on the march!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4120547430159899872009-10-20T22:26:45.383-07:002009-10-20T22:26:45.383-07:00It is surprisingly hard to find even an Arts polym...<i>It is surprisingly hard to find even an Arts polymath - that is, someone who was very good in visual arts and in writing. William Blake was a fine poet as well as visual artist. I can't think of many 20th century example. Lord Berners composed and painted well, I believe.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.jonathanbowden.co.uk/Introduction.html" rel="nofollow">Jonathan Bowden</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4561440085153387522009-10-20T22:24:13.848-07:002009-10-20T22:24:13.848-07:00The blogger Dusk in Autumn has a relevant recent p...The blogger Dusk in Autumn has a relevant recent post:<br /><br />http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2009/10/is-decline-of-genius-due-to-cheaper.htmlJulianhttp://julianodea.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31646455018381176392009-10-20T21:50:11.924-07:002009-10-20T21:50:11.924-07:00Nabokov was, of course, a major novelist and at on...Nabokov was, of course, a major novelist and at one time a professional lepidopterist.<br /><br />I agree with the above remarks about the Internet. It gives great leverage to the intellect. Ideas can be developed, tested and published almost instantaneously. <br /><br />I have noticed a tendency for some really strange combinations of fields to start bearing fruit of late: zoology and geomorphology = zoogeomorphology; Evolutionary theory and literature = Darwinian literary studies; even mediaeval studies and Australian culture = a recent book on mediaevalism in Australia.<br /><br />It would be fun, and possibly productive, to run through the Dewey classification of subjects, combining disparate fields and searching on Google.Juliannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-90379157675275052082009-10-20T21:18:17.779-07:002009-10-20T21:18:17.779-07:00Heinlein? I think the sort who makes advances in ...Heinlein? I think the sort who makes advances in a polymath earlier period may be different in some ways from one that prevails in the more competitive more specialized modern era. Although there hasn't been a man to match Gauss in the millenium.TCOnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-65235711523078344652009-10-20T20:59:16.765-07:002009-10-20T20:59:16.765-07:00It is surprisingly hard to find even an Arts polym...It is surprisingly hard to find even an Arts polymath - that is, someone who was very good in visual arts and in writing. William Blake was a fine poet as well as visual artist. I can't think of many 20th century example. Lord Berners composed and painted well, I believe.Juliannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15990526827925607022009-10-20T06:52:39.762-07:002009-10-20T06:52:39.762-07:00I never said "just" or "boring"...I never said "just" or "boring", that was your editorial, but i appreciate the knowledge.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38981951766779254702009-10-19T22:58:27.992-07:002009-10-19T22:58:27.992-07:00Haven't you heard how mosquitoes might have ki...Haven't you heard <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-506440/Did-mozzies-meteor-dinosaurs.html" rel="nofollow">how mosquitoes might have killed off the mighty dinosaurs</a>, Twoof? No, I guess not. After all, that's just a a bunch of boring old white guy stuff.kudzu bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00865247508134005274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33491448476690142172009-10-19T21:29:56.096-07:002009-10-19T21:29:56.096-07:00Bob, when was the last time someone compared you t...Bob, when was the last time someone compared you to mosquito?<br /><br />I say "when" because I strongly assume it has happened.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-7022660013176425642009-10-19T19:05:40.630-07:002009-10-19T19:05:40.630-07:00I am both a cunning linguist and a master debater....I am both a cunning linguist and a master debater.* Does that make me a polymath?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />*With apologies to Austin Powers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-28665429321046264582009-10-19T18:47:11.302-07:002009-10-19T18:47:11.302-07:00>a linguist who speaks one language is akin to ...>a linguist who speaks one language is akin to a "humorist" studies humor, but cannot make anyone laugh<<br /><br />Absurd. A humorist does not study humor, but rather is "someone who acts, speaks, or writes in an amusing way." You know, like Will Rogers or Mark Twain.<br /><br />A more satisfactory analogy would be someone who calls himself "Truth" but invariably fails to get even the most elementary matters of fact right, never mind grammar or sentence construction.kudzu bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00865247508134005274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-27541208926745133662009-10-19T15:39:52.948-07:002009-10-19T15:39:52.948-07:00"I'll repeat myself, since your reply and..."I'll repeat myself, since your reply and the analogy therein suggest that you are still confused:"<br /><br />Sir, if you'll notice, I originally put the word "linguist" in parenthesis. <br /><br />I'm well aware of what a linguist does, but a linguist who speaks one language is akin to a "humorist" studies humor, but cannot make anyone laugh.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-63424961867450991582009-10-19T14:01:55.195-07:002009-10-19T14:01:55.195-07:00I mean linguistics apart from learning language. W...I mean linguistics apart from learning language. We've been told that they are two different things.<br /><br />Hasn't anyone mentioned da Vinci? Allow me to do so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-92036983497442636742009-10-19T09:04:11.264-07:002009-10-19T09:04:11.264-07:00I'll repeat myself, since your reply and the a...I'll repeat myself, since your reply and the analogy therein suggest that you are still confused:<br /><br />Being a linguist has nothing to do with being a fluent speaker of various languages. Being a linguist means scientifically studying language, not practicing or speaking various languages.Nice trynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31522723551778383532009-10-19T06:50:19.781-07:002009-10-19T06:50:19.781-07:00Shostakovich said Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov sucked...Shostakovich said Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov sucked.<br /><br />Specifically, Solz was a frustrated Stalin and Sak was a two-faced phony (so was Shos, but who wasn't in S. Russia?). That's in _Testimony_.<br /><br />Still laughing about Chomsky. Linguistics is closer to voodoo or Christian Science than it is to physics, biology, or business. Hey! What about Mary Baker Eddy? Philosopher, theologian, businesswomen. She also knitted in her spare time, probably.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72706736791018959882009-10-19T01:27:58.452-07:002009-10-19T01:27:58.452-07:00"There is a great prejudice toward accomplish..."There is a great prejudice toward accomplishment in the physical sciences here, but that is simply not every smart person's interest in life."<br /><br />Indeed and I 100% agree on Robeson. I think a lot of the Steveonauts are mentioning Chomsky because his work on linguistics has an HBD bent. I notice nobody mentioned Jared Diamond eventhough his accomplishments are atleast comparable to Chomsky.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35294748004205353372009-10-18T23:35:31.666-07:002009-10-18T23:35:31.666-07:00Anonymous said:
“I would not place the lowly Frank...Anonymous said:<br />“I would not place the lowly Franklin with super-geniuses like Leibniz and Descartes. That's like comparing Plato to Obama.”<br /><br />Unless Anon belongs to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, I trust he/she meant “like comparing Obama to Plato.”Felixnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-85868577972578272262009-10-18T23:30:36.855-07:002009-10-18T23:30:36.855-07:00"Being a linguist means scientifically studyi..."Being a linguist means scientifically studying language, not practicing or speaking various languages."<br /><br />But of course, and being a doctor means studying medicine.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67687169982962428872009-10-18T23:21:37.468-07:002009-10-18T23:21:37.468-07:00"Many generations of graduate students who mi..."Many generations of graduate students who might have been tempted to try to construct hidden-variables<br />theories were beaten into submission by the claim that von Neumann, 1932, had proved that it could not be done. A few years later (see Jammer, 1974, p. 273) Grete Hermann, 1935, pointed out a glaring deficiency in the argument, but she seems to have been entirely ignored. Everybody continued to cite the von Neumann proof. A third of a century passed before John Bell, 1966,<br />rediscovered the fact that von Neumann's no-hidden-variables proof was based on an assumption that can only<br />be described as silly..."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/QM/mermin_rmp_65_803_93.pdf" rel="nofollow">[pdf]</a>Jornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04907939253526009855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-10792682097907447182009-10-18T22:51:33.682-07:002009-10-18T22:51:33.682-07:00Gell-Mann nominates Murray Gell-Mann.Gell-Mann nominates Murray Gell-Mann.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4628076234224706922009-10-18T22:50:48.190-07:002009-10-18T22:50:48.190-07:00If the test is making a difference outside your fi...If the test is making a difference outside your field, then obviously George Bush. He revolutionized the fields of international diplomacy, nation building, domestic finance, primary and secondary education, late night tv., the list is endless.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-41313574973151408102009-10-18T21:07:49.285-07:002009-10-18T21:07:49.285-07:00This means that he is probably more of a "lin...<i>This means that he is probably more of a "lingust" then Chomsky himself, and this is Noam's métier, not Robeson's.</i><br /><br />Being a linguist has nothing to do with being a fluent speaker of various languages. Being a linguist means scientifically studying language, not practicing or speaking various languages.Nice trynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-669882271742613132009-10-18T19:58:59.062-07:002009-10-18T19:58:59.062-07:00Im the anon who mentioned Bruce Dickinson, I thoug...Im the anon who mentioned Bruce Dickinson, I thought of Brian May - then forget to add him to my comment. And Schwarzenegger too, but I figured him to be too low-brow compared to Dickinson.<br /><br />I think one who has been overlooked might well be our own Albertosaurus. From things he has said he seems accomplished in more than one field.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-85791075763391729562009-10-18T19:28:32.693-07:002009-10-18T19:28:32.693-07:00If Chomsky is a polymath, then any intelligent per...If Chomsky is a polymath, then any intelligent person would have to mention Robeson as well. In addition to all of the strengths Steve listed, Robeson is reputed to have had fair ability in 27 languages. This means that he is probably more of a "lingust" then Chomsky himself, and this is Noam's métier, not Robeson's. These included languages as diverse as Russian, Chinese, Gaelic, Spanish, Russian and Swahili.<br /><br />There is a great prejudice toward accomplishment in the physical sciences here, but that is simply not every smart person's interest in life.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.com