Book ID: CBB578182498

World of Patterns: A Global History of Knowledge (2022)

unapi

Bod, Rens (Author)
Leston Buell (Translator)


Leston Buell
Johns Hopkins University Press


Publication Date: 2022
Physical Details: 400
Language: English

The idea that the world can be understood through patterns and the principles that govern them is one of the most important human insights―it may also be our greatest survival strategy. Our search for patterns and principles began 40,000 years ago, when striped patterns were engraved on mammoths' bones to keep track of the moon's phases. What routes did human knowledge take to grow from these humble beginnings through many detours and dead ends into modern understandings of nature and culture? In this work of unprecedented scope, Rens Bod removes the Western natural sciences from their often-central role to bring us the first global history of human knowledge. Having sketched the history of the humanities in his ground-breaking A New History of the Humanities, Bod now adopts a broader perspective, stepping beyond classical antiquity back to the Stone Age to answer the question: Where did our knowledge of the world today begin and how did it develop? Drawing on developments from all five continents of the inhabited world, World of Patterns offers startling connections. Focusing on a dozen fields―ranging from astronomy, philology, medicine, law, and mathematics to history, botany, and musicology―Bod examines to what degree their progressions can be considered interwoven and to what degree we can speak of global trends. In this pioneering work, Bod aims to fulfill what he sees as the historian's responsibility: to grant access to history's goldmine of ideas. Bod discusses how inoculation was invented in China rather than Europe; how many of the fundamental aspects of modern mathematics and astronomy were first discovered by the Indian Kerala school; and how the study of law provided fundamental models for astronomy and linguistics from Roman to Ottoman times. The book flies across continents and eras. The result is an enlightening symphony, a stirring chorus of human inquisitiveness extending through the ages.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB578182498/

Similar Citations

Article Francesco Crapanzano; (2018)
“Strange Trajectories”: Naive Physics, Epistemology and History of Science (/isis/citation/CBB305738052/)

Book Berthoz, Alain; (2000)
The Brain's Sense of Movement (/isis/citation/CBB000111049/)

Article Yulia Ustinova; (2020)
Alteration of consciousness in Ancient Greece: divine mania (/isis/citation/CBB226577100/)

Article Grush, Rick; (2003)
In Defense of Some “Cartesian” Assumptions Concerning the Brain and Its Operation (/isis/citation/CBB000340564/)

Thesis Rossi, Michael Paul; (2011)
The Rules of Perception: American Color Science, 1831--1931 (/isis/citation/CBB001567292/)

Article Nolan, Lawrence; (2012)
Malebranche on Sensory Cognition and “Seeing As” (/isis/citation/CBB001210527/)

Article Fabrizio Amerini; (2022)
Ockham and Chatton on Intellective Intuition (/isis/citation/CBB443188196/)

Book Roger Smith; (2019)
The Sense of Movement: An Intellectual History (/isis/citation/CBB920831383/)

Article Wilko Graf von Hardenberg; (2021)
Knowing the Littoral: Perception and Representation of Terraqueous Spaces in a Global Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB572332290/)

Article Wassmann, Claudia; (2009)
Physiological Optics, Cognition and Emotion: A Novel Look at the Early Work of Wilhelm Wundt (/isis/citation/CBB000930502/)

Book Lorenzo Magnani; (2017)
The Abductive Structure of Scientific Creativity: An Essay on the Ecology of Cognition (/isis/citation/CBB049134100/)

Book Kareem Khalifa; (2019)
Understanding, Explanation, and Scientific Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB381941111/)

Book J. Adam Carter; Andy Clark; Jesper Kallestrup; S. Orestis Palermos; Duncan Pritchard; (2018)
Socially Extended Epistemology (/isis/citation/CBB151769753/)

Book Mitcham, Carl; (2000)
Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Technology (/isis/citation/CBB000100785/)

Thesis Michael T. Stuart; (2015)
Thought Experiments in Science (/isis/citation/CBB598336466/)

Thesis Horton, Dawn Marie; (2011)
Genetic Epistemology of Science and Scientist in the Human Genome Field (/isis/citation/CBB001567277/)

Article Giere, Ronald N.; (2002)
Discussion Note: Distributed Cognition in Epistemic Cultures (/isis/citation/CBB000410811/)

Article Marcus Willaschek; Eric Watkins; (2020)
Kant on cognition and knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB232801261/)

Authors & Contributors
Palermos, S. Orestis
Ustinova, Yulia
Willaschek, Marcus
Carter, J. Adam
Pritchard, Duncan
Kallestrup, Jesper
Concepts
Cognition
Epistemology
Senses and sensation; perception
Psychology
Philosophy
Philosophy of science
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
21st century
20th century
18th century
Medieval
Places
United States
Greece
Institutions
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment