Polymath

A polymath (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language" >Greek</a>: πολυμαθής, polymathēs, "having learned much")<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath#cite_note-Online_Etymology_Dictionary-Polymath-1" >[1]</a> is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas; such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. The term was first used in the seventeenth century but the related term, polyhistor, is an ancient term with similar meaning.

The term is often used to describe those great thinkers of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance" title="Renaissance" class="mw-redirect" >Renaissance</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment" title="Age of Enlightenment" >Enlightenment</a>, each of whom excelled at several fields in science and the arts, including such individuals as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci" title="Leonardo da Vinci" >Leonardo da Vinci</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo" title="Michelangelo" >Michelangelo</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz" >Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei" title="Galileo Galilei" >Galileo Galilei</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore" title="Rabindranath Tagore" >Rabindranath Tagore</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Sarpi" title="Paolo Sarpi" >Paolo Sarpi</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath#cite_note-2" >[2]</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus" title="Nicolaus Copernicus" >Nicolaus Copernicus</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon" title="Francis Bacon" >Francis Bacon</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne" title="Thomas Browne" >Thomas Browne</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Rizal" title="Jose Rizal" class="mw-redirect" >Jose Rizal</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus" title="Michael Servetus" >Michael Servetus</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath#cite_note-3" >[3]</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haytham" title="Ibn al-Haytham" class="mw-redirect" >Ibn al-Haytham</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath#cite_note-4" >[4]</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m" title="Omar Khayyám" >Omar Khayyám</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath#cite_note-britannica-5" >[5]</a>

In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Italy" title="Renaissance Italy" class="mw-redirect" >Renaissance Italy</a>, the idea of the polymath was expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Battista_Alberti" title="Leon Battista Alberti" >Leon Battista Alberti</a> (1404–1472), in the statement that "a man can do all things if he will."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath#cite_note-6" >[6]</a> Embodying a basic tenet of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism" title="Renaissance humanism" >Renaissance humanism</a> that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This was expressed in the term "Renaissance man" which is often applied to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifted" title="Gifted" class="mw-redirect" >gifted</a> people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social and physical. This term entered the lexicon during the twentieth century and has now been applied to great thinkers living before and after the Renaissance.

Polymath

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