(2021-02-14) VisakanV The Problem Of Excess Genius By David Banks 1997

Visakan Veerasamy: The Problem Of Excess Genius, by David Banks [1997]. The most important question we can ask of historians is “Why are some periods and places so astonishingly more productive than the rest?” (Scenes, Collaborations, Inventions, And Progress, (1997-02-28) Banks Clusters Of Talent)

Geniuses are not scattered uniformly through time and space.

Obvious clumps of geniuses occur in Athens, from about 440 BCE to 380 BCE, Florence, from about 1440 to 1490, London, from about 1570 to 1640.

similar clusters in Weimar, Paris (twice), London (again), Vienna, Japan (late Heian period), Persia (just before Genghis Khan), the T’ang dynasty, and New York City, at times that I hope most readers can discern for themselves

scientific progress seems slightly less likely to concentrate than do the arts and letters

In general, it is statistically (and epistemologically) impossible for the historical record to suggest the factors (this entails technical statistical details; epexegesis is deferred). The researcher must make clever guesses, which are then corroborated by the record. The next section describes factors that have been proposed, and various strategies for discovering plausible factors.

• Prosperity. They submit that a florescent culture needs the economic wherewithal to support the arts. Peace. They suggest that a climate of peace is also conducive to philosophical, artistic and (perhaps) scientific progress. (But recall Welles’ comment on Switzerland.)
• Freedom
• Social Mobility
• The Paradigm Thing. They suppose that when a new medium or perspective arises, then art flourishes until the vein of originality is worked out.

All of these are good ideas, and superficially plausible. But most contradict the historical record.

• Regarding social mobility, this hypothesis seems borne out by our three primary examples.
• Regarding the emergence of a new paradigm, this is difficult to judge concisely. Much of the problem involves distinguishing a perturbation from an innovation.

One could propose other factors. It seems to me that each of the three societies under consideration enjoyed a substantial military victory in the generation preceding their florescence

Also, the great minds in each of these societies tended to hang out together (scene)

A third possible factor is education. In each of the three societies, education tended to be as personal as a punch in the nose. In Athens, the upper class had tutors

There is an alternative strategy for studying the problem of excess genius. Instead of focusing upon the society that produced them, one can study the minutiž of geniuses’ lives, looking for commonalities that might suggest cultural forces. For example, if a study of many geniuses finds that disproportionate numbers were tutored, then one might guess that creative societies were those in which tutoring was a prevalent means of education.

One can postulate many other factors. For example, it is suggestive that all three of Athens, Florence, and London had populations near 300,000. Also, all three had relatively democratic styles of government