polymathic

A blog for the curious "The unfed mind devours itself." -Gore Vidal

[po1ymathic]

The School of Athens (Scuola di Atene) - Raphael (1509-1511, Vatican City)

Hi everyone! No matter if you are reading this soon after I post it or you find this blog years later, I’m very glad that you’re here. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to visit. I hope that you find something here that interests you and that you can sink your teeth into or, at the very least, nibble on a bit.

This blog is for those who are interested in any and everything. I don’t pretend to be or promise to become someone who is an expert on any one thing or anything at all for that matter, but I will promise to remain curious and open-minded. Please feel free to peruse at your leisure and dive into whatever strikes your fancy. I just ask for in return the same curiosity and open-mindedness to learning and to others’ same knowledge journey.

The way I have this blog set up is by article “intensity” so to speak. That is: I will tag each post (or series of posts) by “Deep Dives”, “Work Commute”, or “Tidbits”. “Deep Dives” are what they sound like- deep dives into a particular subject. “Work Commutes” are shorter posts. Something you could read on your commute to work if you take something like public transit (sorry to those of you like myself who have to drive yourselves to work and thus cannot do a little light reading in the morning!). “Tidbits” are shorter, bite-sized chunks and are things that I find interesting and want to share with you all but are posts you don’t have to devote too much time to reading.

All of this isn’t to say that shorter pieces might not turn into longer pieces later! I am always open to going down research rabbit holes as it were to learn more about something. Like I said before though, whatever post you read and no matter its “intensity” level, I thank you again for visiting and I hope you leave a little bit more knowledgeable and, at the very least, a little hungrier.

-Polly

Header Image: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer) - Caspar David Friedrich (1818, Hamburg)

Profile Image: Alexander von Humboldt - Friedrich Georg Weitsch (1806, Berlin)

[po1ymathic]

Alexander von Humboldt

I thought it only appropriate for the first post on this blog to be about polymathic's namesake inspiration: Alexander von Humboldt. If you were to look up the definition of the word "polymath" in the dictionary, you would see that it means "a person of encyclopedic learning" which, of course, is technically correct but it lacks, I think, the nuance behind it.

Another more common way to refer to someone as a polymath is to call them a Renaissance man or woman or even a jack-of-all-trades. These terms also, in my estimation, don't fully encapsulate the spirit of the concept but looking at von Humboldt's life I think is a much better way to understand what a polymath is both in definition and in spirit.

Born Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt in Berlin, Germany on September 14th, 1769 to an aristocratic family, Alexander and his older brother, Wilhelm, grew up receiving the best education that could be had at the time instead of receiving much parental love and affection. Their father died when they were both young and their mother, instead of rearing and supporting them, placed them under the tutelage (and alternative supervision) of a plethora of Enlightenment thinkers.

Despite feeling behind Wilhelm (two years his senior) during their studies as children, in adulthood Alexander came to be an incredibly popular and well-respected figure worldwide in the 1820s through till his death on May 6th, 1859 at eighty-nine years old. He traveled to four continents, making friends and connections along the way and writing more than thirty-six books and some 25,000 letters. A lifelong abolitionist who was also outspoken about the mistreatment of indigenous populations in the Americas and who defended the idea that knowledge was for everyone made Alexander unpopular in certain circles, but even though he held these controversial and divisive beliefs, there was a great outpouring of grief over his passing felt across the globe.

At thirty-one, he delivered a series of lectures that in turn spurred the creation of his magnum opus - Kosmos (published in English as Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe). This work became a national bestseller. Alexander had an extroverted and exuberant personality, calling coffee "concentrated sunbeams", and so while some found him annoying, most found him charming and deeply fascinating. He certainly could sell a book or two and fill up lecture halls so even if perhaps his sarcasm and high-energy were at times off-putting, it clearly wasn't enough for people to write him off entirely.

Institutions everywhere clamored for him to come speak or, better yet, join their ranks and his life and influence even was part of the inspiration for one of the world's leading museums and institutions - the Smithsonian.

Alexander von Humboldt's life was filled with adventure, discovery, and communal learning and he contributed to a number of fields of study as well as developed numerous new theories. He challenged what we knew about the earth and how it worked. He challenged how systems were set up where they only favored certain groups of people. He challenged the limits of the body and mind. Of all the things that Alexander von Humboldt accomplished in his life, I think one of his most important contributions was to inspire and remind the world to be curious about any and everything and to never limit oneself.

If you find yourself thinking a lot about something, look into it. Learn however you can. Read. Watch. Do. Knowledge is for everyone and the ability to be a polymath is not limited to anything other than your curiosity. Von Humboldt has been gone for a long time now, but he lives on through the people who continue to explore and to ask questions.

Pictured:

(Left) Sketch of Alexander von Humboldt (1807, Berlin)

(Right) Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt - Joseph Karl Stieler (1843)

Resources for further study:

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf (2015, Vintage Books)

"Who was Alexander von Humboldt?" by Eleanor Jones Harvey for Smithsonian Magazine (2020)