Page 11 - Cognition and Thinking of the history of Science and Technology

From the Homo Universalis to the extreme specialisation

• Scientific culture was also transformed during the

centuries. This transformation is related to the

transformation of the scientific methodology.
• The Homo Universalis of the Renaissance, a

scholar who investigated all scientific fields and at

the same time was an artist and philosopher, was
replaced by the Polymath of the 17 and 18 c. who
th
was interested about all secular knowledge.

• But as science developed and each field required
an enormous cognitive effort, scientists gradually

became specialists of a specific field.

• This trend towards specialisation rapidly grow
during the 20 century and now the main
th
scientific fields have subdivisions where scientists

specialise. A researcher cannot any more declare
that he a Chemist, or Physicist, or Astronomer or

Biologist; he must also specify the specific field of
these disciplines.

Leonardo Da Vinci
Homo Universalis