A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present (2013)
Many histories of science have been written, but A New History of the Humanities offers the first overarching history of the humanities from Antiquity to the present. There are already historical studies of musicology, logic, art history, linguistics, and historiography, but this volume gathers these, and many other humanities disciplines, into a single coherent account. Its central theme is the way in which scholars throughout the ages and in virtually all civilizations have sought to identify patterns in texts, art, music, languages, literature, and the past. What rules can we apply if we wish to determine whether a tale about the past is trustworthy? By what criteria are we to distinguish consonant from dissonant musical intervals? What rules jointly describe all possible grammatical sentences in a language? How can modern digital methods enhance pattern-seeking in the humanities? Rens Bod contends that the hallowed opposition between the sciences (mathematical, experimental, dominated by universal laws) and the humanities (allegedly concerned with unique events and hermeneutic methods) is a mistake born of a myopic failure to appreciate the pattern-seeking that lies at the heart of this inquiry. A New History of the Humanities amounts to a persuasive plea to give Panini, Valla, Bopp, and countless other often-overlooked intellectual giants their rightful place next to the likes of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein.
...MoreReview John Henry (2015) Review of "A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 895-896).
Similar Citations
Book
Iqbal, Muzaffar;
(2012)
New Perspectives on the History of Islamic Science Vol. 3
(/isis/citation/CBB001250503/)
Thesis
Welsh, Whitney Elizabeth;
(2011)
Unthinkable: Mathematics and the Rise of the West
(/isis/citation/CBB001560636/)
Book
Enrico Giannetto;
Giulia Giannini;
(2009)
Da Archimede a Majorana: la fisica nel suo divenire
(/isis/citation/CBB945473809/)
Book
Jacomien Prins;
Maude Vanhaelen;
(2017)
Sing Aloud Harmonious Spheres: Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony
(/isis/citation/CBB071701613/)
Book
Osler, Margaret J.;
(2010)
Reconfiguring the World: Nature, God, and Human Understanding from the Middle Ages to Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001020917/)
Article
Erkoreka, Anton;
(2008)
Épidémies en Pays Basque: De la peste noire à la grippe espagnole
(/isis/citation/CBB000933241/)
Book
Rehav Rubin;
(2019)
Portraying the Land: Hebrew Maps of the Land of Israel from Rashi to the Early 20th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB589984320/)
Book
Berlinski, David;
(2013)
The King of Infinite Space: Euclid and His Elements
(/isis/citation/CBB001213232/)
Book
Thomas, Margaret;
(2011)
Fifty Key Thinkers on Language and Linguistics
(/isis/citation/CBB001211661/)
Book
Egerton, Frank N;
(2012)
Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel
(/isis/citation/CBB001421436/)
Book
Patterson, Gary;
(2012)
A Prehistory of Polymer Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001211552/)
Book
Orna, Mary Virginia;
(2013)
The Chemical History of Color
(/isis/citation/CBB001211549/)
Book
Steven Weinberg;
(2015)
Para explicar o mundo: A descoberta da ciência moderna
(/isis/citation/CBB683100554/)
Book
Gáspár Jékely;
(2017)
The Story of Genetics, Development and Evolution: A Historical Dialogue
(/isis/citation/CBB587565770/)
Book
Iwan Rhys Morus;
(2017)
The Oxford Illustrated History of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB836327737/)
Book
Nadia Maria Filippini;
(2017)
Generare, partorire, nascere: Una storia dall’antichità alla provetta
(/isis/citation/CBB487767058/)
Book
Jonathan Reinarz;
(2014)
Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell
(/isis/citation/CBB025338985/)
Book
Angela Asole;
Gabriella Arena;
Cosimo Palagiano;
(2020)
Cartografia e territorio nei secoli
(/isis/citation/CBB918762602/)
Book
Anita Guerrini;
(2022)
Experimenting with Humans and Animals: From Aristotle to CRISPR
(/isis/citation/CBB030333227/)
Book
Andrew Ede;
(2019)
Technology and Society: A World History
(/isis/citation/CBB704256717/)
Be the first to comment!