The Polymath: Unlocking the Power of Human Versatility

by Waqas Ahmed

  European Romanticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries famously used art as a potent tool to counter what they called the excessive intellectual rationalism of the Enlightenment. As a result it produced some wonderfully versatile artists. One of the few notable female polymaths of this period was the German Romanticist Bettina von Arnim, who excelled as a musician, singer, sculptor, draughtswoman and novelist. She was a friend and contemporary of Goethe, and although known as an eccentric (any female polymath would have been back then), her multifaceted brilliance in the arts reflected the hallmark universality of the German Romantics. Her German contemporary Richard Wagner is best known as the composer who produced great pieces such as Ride of the Valkyries and Tristan und Isolde. But lesser known is that he was also a theatre director and art theorist whose idea of Universal Art (Gesamtkunstwerk) revolutionised opera by synthesising the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts so as to produce a ‘total work of art.’

  The invention and popularisation of motion pictures or film in the latter part of the nineteenth century opened up an entire new playing field for those artists possessing all-round talents in the visual, performing and literary arts. Frenchman Jean Cocteau, perhaps the most versatile artist of the twentieth century, was renowned for his popularisation of avant-garde culture in the early to mid-1900s. A prodigious writer, he produced over 50 published poetic works and wrote some 20 critically acclaimed plays and directed six major films, of which four — Beauty and the Beast and the ‘Orphic Trilogy’ — in which he himself acted, became the best examples of poetic consciousness in French cinema. Cocteau’s contribution to the visual arts was equally impressive, showing a considerable graphic and plastic range from pencil, crayon, pastel, paint or pen-and-ink drawings to posters, wall decorations, lithographs, ceramics and tapestries. He was one of the most flamboyant celebrities of mid-twentieth-century France, and also dabbled in ballet, stamp design and sculpture. Of the same breed was Italian Pier Paolo Pasolini, who similarly excelled in filmmaking, painting and literature. He, too, became a published poet as a teen, and soon after wrote his controversial novel Ragazzi di Vita, which outraged the Italian establishment of the time, but has since been hailed by critics. He subsequently wrote numerous poems, stories and essays, as well as six plays — most of which challenged the religious and political status quo of the time. His work in film was no less controversial. As a screenwriter and director, his films Accatone (1961), Ro Go Pa G (1963) and The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) were considered blasphemous and outrageous, but nonetheless received critical acclaim. He wrote screenplays for over 50 films and documentaries, and even acted in and composed the music for some of them. Furthermore, his visual art — distinctly styled drawings, paintings and sketches — have been exhibited worldwide.

  Gordon Parks was one of the first known black artistic polymaths in America. He started his career as a photo-journalist for high-profile publications such as Vogue and Life magazines, as well as for the Office of War Information, covering subjects ranging from fashion, sports, theatre, poverty and racial segregation, to portraits of the likes of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Barbra Streisand, as well as publishing photography manuals. He then became Hollywood’s first major black film director, and his 1971 film, Shaft, spawned a series of blaxploitation films. Parks was also a fine musician and a self-taught jazz pianist. He composed Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1953) and Tree Symphony (1967) as well as the score for his movie Shaft, and a ballet dedicated to civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Parks’ writing repertoire includes novels, poetry and autobiography, as well as photographic instructional manuals and filmmaking books.

  According to his biographer Andrew Robinson (who has also written biographies for other polymaths such as Thomas Young and Rabindranath Tagore), Satyajit Ray was ‘by far the most versatile creator’ he has known. One of the greatest filmmakers in the history of cinema, he would for each of his films ‘write the screenplay solo, cast every actor personally, design his own sets and costumes, operate the camera, edit each frame, compose his own music, and even draw his own posters.’ It was this ability to synthesise various aspects of the filmmaking process that allowed him to create masterpieces such as the Apu Trilogy in the 1950s and other classics that eventually won him an Oscar for lifetime achievement before his death in 1992.

  Abbas Kiarostami studied art and design and started his career as a painter, designer and illustrator of posters in the Iranian advertising industry in the 1960s. Considered a cinematic genius (Koker Trilogy, 1987–1994), Kiarostami directed over 40 films, including shorts and documentaries, in addition to numerous TV commercials since the 1970s. Kiarostami has been directly involved in all aspects of filmmaking: as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer, while also designing credit titles and publicity material. Kiarostami was also a reputed poet, with a bilingual collection of more than 200 of his poems, Walking with the Wind, being published by Harvard University Press. He was also a celebrated photographer, publishing his Untitled Photographs, a collection of over 30 photographs showcasing the snow landscapes of his hometown Tehran over a 25-year period.

  Entrepreneurs

  Benjamin Franklin personified the inventive spirit of this new epoch in American history. At a young age he became a successful newspaper editor and printer. He published satirical papers such as the Pennsylvania Chronicle and The Pennsylvania Gazette, but it was his Poor Richard’s Almanack — to which he famously contributed proverbs and parables — that made him wealthy. He founded the ‘junto club,’ a group or society of intellectuals to discuss matters of scientific and philosophical enquiry as well as general self-improvement.

  Franklin also acquired a growing international reputation as a scientist. More concerned with the practical application of science than theory, he became famous for his experiments in electricity and for his many inventions, including the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove and a carriage odometer. He also made breakthroughs in climatology, oceanography and demography.

  Following the American Revolution he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris, marking the end of the Revolutionary War. Due to his extensive European travels and contact in the European intellectual community, he was already the most internationally renowned of America’s Founding Fathers, later becoming an accomplished diplomat and major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. He later served in many public positions including as America’s first postmaster-general and the Governor of Pennsylvania. He established many organisations and institutions such as Philadelphia’s police force, fire department, subscription library and the American Philosophical Society (of which he would become President).

  He was a member of over 30 intellectual clubs and societies and an avid hobbyist: a competent musician and composer (and inventor of the glass harmonica) and the first known chess player in the American colonies. As a writer he authored an autobiography and numerous letters on subjects ranging from science and moral philosophy, to chess and slavery.

  Managing a successful organisation (such as a corporation, charity, academic institution or multinational body) requires the effective amalgamation of its various aspects. The word organisation is a derivative of ‘organs,’ suggesting that it is analogous to a body with multiple organs of different functions and characteristics. The head of the body is responsible for knowing the inner workings of each organ as well as its role in the optimal functioning of the body as a whole. The best business leaders are those who demonstrate a strong knowledge of and involvement in different parts of their organisation, which can include fields ranging from finance, law and communications to technology and trade as well as product and sector knowledge.

  An effectively synthesising businessman is more than just a manager. He or she is thoroughly well versed in each dimension of the business and therefore understands how each of these dimensions best fits into the overa
ll corporate puzzle. One might cite Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, as a potent example of such a business leader. He had a thorough grasp of all aspects of the corporation, ranging from technical engineering and artistic design to marketing and finance. His effective synthesis of these divisions and ability to, as he put it, ‘connect the dots’ allowed for the creation and growth of one of the most innovative, successful and influential corporations of the twenty-first century.

  American entrepreneur and industrialist Thomas Edison was one of the most prolific inventors of all time, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in addition to a number in Europe. He was also one of the first world-class inventors to attain equally phenomenal success in business and entrepreneurship. He employed numerous researchers, scientists and inventors, and while his personal involvement in every invention has been questioned, he is known to have directed and supervised most, if not all, of the projects that won him patents. His inventions related to electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering, and were diverse in scope and revolutionary by nature. They include the phonograph, the light bulb (built on previously ad hoc attempts at producing a practically usable lighting mechanism), the first commercially available fluoroscope (a machine that uses X-rays to take radiographs), the stock ticker (the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines), the kinetograph (an early form of the motion picture camera) and the kinetoscope (a motion picture exhibition device).

  Howard Hughes was one of the most multifaceted businessmen of his time. He inherited a fortune from his father but decided at 18 to move into film production. His directorial debut Hell’s Angels was one of the most expensive movies of its time and won him great acclaim in Hollywood. After a series of productions (including Academy Award winners), Hughes decided to pursue his passion for flying (he flew and crashed during shooting for Hell’s Angels), and famously set a number of aviation records, including the record for circumnavigating the globe. He even bought a major stake in Trans World Airlines and was commissioned by the U.S. government to build a number of aircraft. Through his holding company, Summa Corporation, Hughes began to invest in a number of projects in industries as diverse as aerospace and defence, electronics, mass media, manufacturing, hospitality, petroleum drilling and oilfield services, consulting, entertainment and mining. He was a particularly successful real estate investor, and ended up owning much of the prime property in Las Vegas. His ongoing interest in science led him to establish the world-famous Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

  Entrepreneurship is certainly not exclusive to modern America. But the U.S. has been the embodiment of modern capitalism and industry, fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Most of the greatest industrialists and entrepreneurs have tended to be Americans — and those too with scientific backgrounds who knew how to popularise (and monetise) the latest technological advancements. With Franklin, Edison, Hughes and Jobs, it is not the fact that they amassed great fortunes that makes them so influential. It is the fact that they were visionaries, who through their business activity disrupted the status quo, brought new ideas and products to market, and in doing so changed the world profoundly.

  Humanitarians

  Albert Schweitzer, a towering figure in the history of modern philosophy, made significant intellectual and cultural contributions to each of the fields in which he operated: philosophy, music, medicine, theology and humanitarianism. Although Schweitzer’s thought was somewhat influenced by Indian philosophy (on which he also wrote a book), he too operated primarily under the Christian framework. He studied Protestant theology at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität of Straßburg and completed his Ph.D. dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, after which he became a deacon at the church Saint-Nicolas of Straßbourg. With the completion of his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as a curate and the following year became provisional Principal of the Theological College of Saint Thomas. In 1906 he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung which was first translated into English by William Montgomery and published in 1910 as The Quest for the Historical Jesus.

  Motivated primarily by his religious duty to humanity, Schweitzer became a physician after receiving a Doctorate in Medicine when he was 37. He joined the Paris Missionary Society and set up a hospital in Lamarené (now Gabon), treating numerous diseases there during the First World War. He was also a renowned musical scholar who studied the music of Bach and influenced the German Organ reform movement (Orgelbewegung). Schweitzer’s ongoing quest for a universal ethical philosophy culminated in his formulation of the ‘Reverence of Life,’ a concept that won him the Nobel Peace Prize. Essentially an affirmation of life and a focus on human consciousness, it is summarised by his quote ‘I am life which wills to live, and I exist in the midst of life which wills to live.’ Equally deserving of the prize was his activism against European colonialism in Africa.

  Some people make it their business to help others. These ‘humanitarians’ feel a calling, a responsibility to protect the vulnerable. They do this in many ways; and it is remarkable how many of them were polymaths. Florence Nightingale, who lived at the turn of the twentieth century, became a national hero for her work as a nurse during the Crimean war, where she became known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ making vast improvements to the medical conditions for wounded soldiers. She later laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’s Hospital in London — the first secular nursing school in the world. An unusually well-educated woman for the time, Nightingale was a prodigious mathematician who helped popularise the graphical presentation of statistical data and is credited with developing a form of the pie chart now known as the Nightingale Rose diagram. She was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association. She also emerged as a controversial theologian, and her theodicy Suggestions for Thought, addressed the problem of evil and promoted the idea of universal reconciliation. She was an exceptionally versatile writer, making contributions to the fields of medicine, feminism, human development, theology, mysticism, mathematics and more. Her writings were posthumously published as the 16-volume Collected Works of Florence Nightingale.

  Three-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Russian Nicholas Roerich also became one of the world’s most prominent theosophists, founding the Agni Yoga School of esoterism in South Asia. This followed an exceptionally diverse career in the arts and humanities in the early twentieth century. He became one of the leading oil painters of his generation, with an output of over 7,000 paintings and drawings. He was Chairman of the World of Art Society, director of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and founder of numerous arts and culture institutions during his travels in Asia, Europe and North America. He also became a prominent stage and costume designer, working on large-scale productions such as the Ballet Russes, Prince Igor and The Rite of Spring, and working as a stage designer for the Covent Garden Theatre in London as well as the Chicago Opera. He had written many short stories and poems before and after the 1917 revolutions, including the famous Flowers of Morya cycle. As an architect he urged the preservation of old Russian architecture and designed the first Buddhist temple in Russia. Roerich was also an avid archaeologist who travelled extensively on expeditions.

  In the early 1900s, two inspiring figures empowered oppressed communities on different sides of the globe through their work in a multitude of fields. In Australia, Aboriginal polymath David Ngunaitponi excelled as a scientist, engineer, inventor, mythologist, short-story writer and activist at a time when aborigines struggled to find role models who showed that they were as capable as any white man of accomplishing such feats. His early career was varied. He was an apprentice to a boot maker and was appointed as the mission organist, and then worked as a bookkeeper. His inventions included an anti-gravitational device, a multiradial wheel and a sheep-shearing hand-piece, per
petual motion machine, centrifugal motor and a mechanical propulsion device. His pre-World War I design of a helicopter was based on the boomerang and he conducted research into the polarisation of light. He was also a recognised authority on ballistics. But of course, he would not be acclaimed for these feats. He became a fierce campaigner for Aboriginal rights and his traditional stories, published in 1929 as Native Legends and then later as Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, not only played a large role in educating foreigners about the indigenous culture, but, perhaps more importantly, restored the dignity of aboriginal culture and allowed aborigines the opportunity to reconnect with the heritage that had been diluted by the colonists.

  Like Ngunaitponi, George W. Carver was a prolific inventor as well as a humanitarian, in the nineteenth-century African American context. He initially studied music at college, but then became a renowned painter. A totally self-sufficient operator, he made his own paints; he sewed, knitted and crocheted his own clothes while working his way through school; he took up weaving baskets and mgs and doing woodwork; he mastered botany and agriculture to the extent that he made fundamental contributions to each. But he was also a respected sports teacher, and a religious orator and educator who inspired the vulnerable and promoted racial harmony. As a scientist and inventor he was especially known for the many uses he devised for the peanut. The many other products he invented included plastics, paints, dyes and even a kind of gasoline.

  That a great number of history’s most influential individuals were polymaths is simply a fact too difficult to ignore. Nezahualcóyotl, Akbar and Churchill are among the most celebrated statesmen of all time. The philosophies developed by Confucius, Aristotle, Maimonides and Ibn Sina have had a profound impact on the modern psyche. The European Renaissance would not have been the same without the artistic and scientific breakthroughs of Leonardo, Bacon and Copernicus. The cultural and political vision of Tagore, Diop and Rizal helped bring the imperial world order to its knees. Johnson, Robeson and Angelou were instrumental in restoring the cultural integrity of the oppressed in the United States. The captivating ideas of Goethe and Steiner continue to infiltrate fields as diverse as education, science, and culture. The list is endless. Knowing that such individuals — whose common attribute was that they were undoubtedly polymaths — have such an impact on society, why do parents, teachers, governments and employers still insist on manufacturing one-dimensional, monomathic specialists? Without first understanding how and why this cult of specialisation prevails, we cannot seek to overcome it.