By Shahab Sabahi – Energy and Environment for
Development – Research Group
Ken Jonson principle chief at Florida Tribe Cherokee
Indian discussed in his recent post in social scientists portal that in
history, American [even other nations] has multiple instances where polymaths
helped shape and set societies apart as a contender in the world's economic and
political matrix. He brought a couple of examples of the great American polymaths,
such as Ben Franklin (his contributions in understanding of optometry,
diplomacy, free press, invention protection, invention development, marine sciences),
Thomas Jefferson (land survey standard, the college system, positive racial
relations and culturally sensitive assimilation), Henry Ford who introduced mass
production and marketing. One may add
more name to this list such as Nikola Tesla or more examples from other nations.
In our world today, it would appear that the
polymaths are fading away. Conventional schools set to steer students away from
being polymaths. Educational systems require focusing on particular discipline
of sciences. Academics further polarize the issue by not allowing works from
fully credentialed academics to be given credit as possible valid points of
thought for consideration. Even though many academics later disprove the work
of academics after massive harm has been caused (e.g., Professor DiIulio's book
called " Body Count: Moral Poverty and How to Win America’s War Against
Crime and Drugs).
Ken sees that the traditional system of polymath has
brought more profits to humanity and society development.
Perhaps one cause could be the idea of division of
labour in order to achieve maximum productivity. It curbs the development of
polymaths. Nowadays being professional in one narrow field is credited the
most. It may stem from the growth of complexity in sciences. Without having
polymaths, the creation of ideas for growth would be halted. The ideas those are necessary for stability of
systems and are required for developing holistic definition for performance and
value for systems (e.g. Society). The ideas are equally important for improving
the interactions between systems.
Nowadays
there is no debate on ideas as it was (capitalism vs. communism). What is hot
now, debate on policies
Damping the development of polymaths could also be
seen beyond the division of labour. It could stem from the fragmentation of
interest groups. It keeps broad development of interest in many different
fields limited, if only artificially. Those who have the larger field of view
into humanity and develop that wider focus on the world do not stand out as
much either with the democratization of knowledge through the prevalence of
higher education being spread far and wide. There is drift between fields but
to be a master of one field happens on a much higher technical level than in previous
epochs. This may cause self-limiting behavior and leads to less of the polymath
phenomena taking center stage.