Talk:Polymath

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L Ron Hubbard[edit]

Various sources list this man as a visionary in music, medicine, psychology, art, nuclear physics, and philosophy. He was also a child prodigy according to various sources. You may want to add him in both articles. (unsigned comment by User:Deibwan, 12:42, 9 May 92014)

Self-Promotion in Academia[edit]

The whole section "In Academia" reads like shameless self-promotion and copy-pasting (not even in Wiki format - references left in text as e.g. "(R. Root-Bernstein, 2009, p. 857)" straight out of someone's thesis). Who is supposed to understand this babble - "He utilized a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach...." - this is irrelevant & spams up the page. Suggest delete the whole thing. --anonymous (talk) 23:06, 22 April 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:A61:247A:6B01:5158:15AA:67E7:8BCA (talk) [reply]

This whole article is strange. The lead is good to great, the Renaissance man section is good, and then academic section is just summaries of what five different academics think about polymaths, why they are good or bad and why we should encourage them, it's incredibly academic, and doesn't seem to be very encyclopedic at all.

There's also no section that restates what a polymath is, what are agreed upon qualities of a polymath, no restatement of most of the lead. It's really quite bizarre, I don't think I've ever seen an article like this before. 71.11.5.2 (talk) 19:30, 20 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, I came here to comment the exact same thing. 24.36.195.185 (talk) 04:45, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

White male used as the picture? Really?[edit]

I suggest we change the main picture to that of an African American or Israeli, or anything other than a white male. It just sets a bad tone 218.215.116.200 (talk) 10:59, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest we stop worrying about any race but the Human Race... Polymaths come in all sizes, shapes, colors and creeds. So one picture is as good as another. Raclapp (talk) 14:16, 28 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Why not just make a collage of polymaths with people from every race?

Case solved. 152.231.128.241 (talk) 15:10, 21 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'll suggest that the best person to illustrate what a polymath is would be someone widely known both by name and by his wide-ranging accomplishments. Few, no matter the race, would better depict a polymath than Ben Franklin. 159.250.54.66 (talk) 15:09, 19 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Race and religion should not be selection categories in any way. Raclapp (talk) 15:58, 19 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

possible new paragraph heading and section[edit]

Backstory: I've been a Polymath my entire 48+ years since middle school. It is rare that the negative aspects of being a Polymath are mentioned. I would like to create a subsection in this article to address known issues experienced as a group by many historical and modern Polymath. Many issues are similar to those experienced by those with high IQs (over 140) but not all. Thoughts? Richard Clapp Jr Central Ohio Raclapp (talk) 14:14, 28 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that this information should be somewhere, though this might not be the best home. Could you write a bit so it can be sourced and put in a good spot?

I can do stuff! (talk) 01:35, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hypatia[edit]

I recall finding Hypatia through this article, but mention of her - or of any woman - seems to have been removed. Ressomatic (talk) 14:43, 24 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Good point. Flicking through The Polymath, I find Maya Angelou (page 1), Florence Nightingale, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Émilie du Châtelet, Ban Zhao, Lubna of Córdoba and Anna Maria van Schurman (page 18), Mary Somerville (page 71), George Eliot and Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis (page 291). Hypatia's on page 57. Why on Earth is this article including male-only lists? MartinPoulter (talk) 16:33, 24 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Need a trained eye to take a look.[edit]

Could someone please add to this section the names of any of the women that fit the description of polymath? It seems a previous reply to this thread offered up quite a few candidates. I’m also interested in the official criteria that’s required for a person’s name to officially qualify for such a title as polymath. Could anyone enlighten me? 2600:6C55:4600:1D39:4830:1A64:3D58:4DDC (talk) 12:42, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reliability of ResearchGate[edit]

@004bvan I'm replying here to your message on my Talk page because it concerns the sourcing of this article. Muntadher Saleh does appear to be a notable person and successful artist, already documented in library databases. I don't know if he is a polymath; training as a pharmacist before becoming an artist does not in itself make him a polymath. The link you have been given to ResearchGate is not a reliable source for this, and is in fact a deceptive link. First, ResearchGate is not itself a reliable source; anyone can upload files to it. The particular link you put into this article (since removed) just includes an image by Saleh and pretends to be a figure from a peer-reviewed article called "The Last Polymath". However on looking at that article, we see that it is not about Muntadher Saleh but about Hermann von Helmholtz. I think the ResearchGate user is falsely claiming to be the author of the article. If you want people to believe that Saleh "has been recognized in various scholarly works", you need a much better source than this link. I will add Saleh to the list of target articles for global artists. MartinPoulter (talk) 08:07, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @MartinPoulter,

Thank you so much for your detailed and insightful response. I really appreciate your guidance and the effort you put into maintaining the quality of Wikipedia content.

I wanted to add that Muntadher Saleh is not only an artist and pharmacist but also a talented calligrapher and writer. While I'm not entirely sure if this qualifies him as a polymath, I'll leave that judgment to your expertise.

Thank you again for adding Saleh to the list of target articles for global artists. I will also ensure to seek out reliable sources for all the articles I contribute to in the future .

Best regards,

. 004bvan (talk) 14:02, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]