My most recent blog post at Memoria Press:
In Walter Isaacson’s 2008 biography of Albert Einstein, he quotes the great scientist as saying, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Einstein was certainly an example of this maxim, with many of his scientific discoveries having resulted from his own thought experiments.
But this maxim applies even more so to the newest object of Isaacson’s interest: Leonardo da Vinci. In his new biography of Leonardo, Isaacson takes note of Leonardo’s dual expertise: He was as competent an artist as he was a scientist.
If the modern intellectual world was remarkable for one thing, it would be its tendency toward specialization. It has become, to use the words of the historian G.M. Young, the “Wasteland of the Experts.” But Leonardo’s whole life was a repudiation of the Cult of the Specialist…
Read the rest here.
