How libraries reinvented knowledge

Ian F. McNeely and Lisa Wolverton note how the development by the Greeks of libraries, as storehouses of the written word, changed the possibilities of knowledge from what they had been in a purely oral society:
Every library comfortably contains writings and juxtaposes ideas that, if they were represented by their proponents in the flesh, might [...]

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The unavoidable superficial

The following reflection on the unknowable vastness of human knowledge was written 75 years ago:
Human knowledge had become unmanageably vast; every science had begotten a dozen more, each subtler than the rest; the telescope revealed stars and systems beyond the mind of man to number or to name; geology spoke in terms of millions of [...]

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Does online research lead to superficiality?

James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, writes about his research into the costs of having more research materials available online.
The benefits of having the materials online are obvious: Ease of finding, ease of searching, ease of printing.
Evans wondered whether there were costs along with those benefits. He found that the ease of [...]

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Knowledge

[Gustave Flaubert's comic characters Bouvard and Pécuchet] discovered through their friendship a common purpose: the pursuit of universal knowledge. To achieve this ambitious goal […] they attempted to read everything they could find on every branch of human endeavor, and cull from their readings the most outstanding facts and ideas, an enterprise that was, of [...]

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Loving the alien

A few days ago, I wrote about how difficult it can be to learn about cultures that are unconnected to one’s own; how we lack a context in which to understand what we are trying to learn.
Part of my difficulty in this kind of learning is that I tend to approach it purely intellectually, which [...]

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Returning to the Republic

As an undergraduate, I took two runs at Plato’s Republic, neither notably successful. I am sure I know where to find the paper I wrote about it, and equally sure I would rather leave it where I have lain it.
Thanks to the fine folks at Multnomah County Library (full disclosure: I work for MCL, which [...]

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Henry Fairlie

In the post immediately below, I note how good British commentaries on the United States can be. One example:
Henry Fairlie was a British journalist who worked in the United States from the mid-1960s until his death in 1990. If you like American political history and ever have the opportunity to read The Kennedy Promise or [...]

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Another perspective

I regret the lack of histories of the United States available in English by writers from non-Anglophone countries. Someone from another culture who approaches the subject using a different set of assumptions can provide insights that a native would never reach on his own.
British commentaries can be bracing and instructive and I often enjoy them. [...]

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Learning the alien

Senior American politicians who cannot tell a Sunni from a Shi’ite have been rightly roasted in recent years. However, to learn about a culture completely alien from your own is difficult.
My ancestors are mostly from Western Europe. I grew up hearing the names Locke, Kant, and Descartes, and so they were familiar to me well [...]

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Tabling

The verb tabling means the opposite in British English from its meaning in American English.  In the UK, to table an item means to begin discussing it.  In the US, to table an item means to postpone discussing it.

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