A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the PresentMany 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. |
Contents
Introduction The Quest for
Principles and Patterns | 1 |
Antiquity The Dawn of the Humanities | 13 |
The Middle Ages The Universal
and the Particular | 74 |
Early Modern Era The Unity of the
Humanities | 142 |
Modern Era The Humanities Renewed | 250 |
Other editions - View all
A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from ... Rens Bod Limited preview - 2013 |
A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from ... Rens Bod No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa al-Biruni al-Farabi Alberti analysis Annales Antiquity appeared approach Arabic architecture Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle’s Aristoxenus art history art theory basis became Bharata Muni biblical Cambridge University Press century bce China Chinese Christian chronicles classical completely concept consonances cultural described developed Dionysius discovery Dynasty edited empirical English translation Europe European example formal Greek Herodotus historians historiography humanistic humanities Ibn Khaldun important Indian interpretation Islamic civilization isnad Joseph Scaliger language Latin laws linguistics literature logic manuscripts mathematical medieval melody methodical principles Middle Ages Modists Musica enchiriadis musicology Natya Shastra nineteenth century overview Oxford University Press painting Panini’s grammar perspective Petrarch philologists philology philosophy poetics Poliziano possible primarily problem Qing Dynasty quest Renaissance result rhetoric Roman Sanskrit Scaliger scholars sentence Sibawayh Sima Qian source principle structure style system of rules text reconstruction textual criticism theatre theoretical Thucydides tradition treatise twentieth century Valla volumes words